A British-Swiss firm behind cattle food which reduces a cow's methane emissions by 30% has begun selling carbon credits to allow companies to offset their CO2 footprint.
Mootral has developed the special feed at their laboratories in Abertillery in the Welsh Valleys.
It works by using an extract of garlic in a special formulated food supplement for cattle, which removes micro-organisms in a cow's stomach that create methane.
Now the firm wants companies and individuals to offset their carbon footprint by purchasing so-called "CowCredits" for around £60 - equivalent to one tonne of CO2.
The credits are similar to other carbon offsetting schemes which see trees planted but instead involves the purchase of cattle feed which can reduce methane output.
Mootral claims that if all 1.5 billion cows in the world consumed their feed for one year, it would reduce CO2 output equivalent to removing more than 330 million cars from the road.
Dan Neef, one of the company's senior scientists, said: "It is a gamechanger - cows are a huge problem, they put an enormous amount of methane into the atmosphere, and what people don't appreciate is methane is so much more powerful than carbon dioxide even as a global warming gas."
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