A CHEMICAL ADDED to cow feed in England has led some social media users to try and organise a boycott, including sharing videos of themselves pouring milk down the drain.
Bovaer is a small organic molecule that, when added to cow feed, is supposed to reduce the amount of methane the animals produce, largely though burping.
Arla Foods, a major dairy co-operative in the UK, recently announced that its farms would begin testing small amounts of the Bovaer in their cow feed in an effort to reduce their carbon footprint.
Methane is a major greenhouse gas, believed to account for about 30% of global warming since pre-industrial times. Most methane is produced from human activities, including dairy farming.
Despite having been cleared for use by health authorities in the UK, Arla Food’s announcement has led to a flood of misinformation – as well as calls to boycott any product from, or even made with, dairy from cows given the supplement.
“Hey @ArlaFoodsUK,” one post on X begins. “This is my 6 pints bought from @LidlGB down the drain as I don’t want you messing with the cows.”
The video does indeed show a large carton of semi-skimmed milk being poured down the sink. The post continues: “We want #fullfartmilk & stop with the #ClimateScam & keep #BillGates out of the food chain. No to #Bovaer.”
The term “Full Fart Milk” appears to have gained some traction, with dozens of posts of it on X also making similar references to climate change being a scam or Bill Gates.
Irish users have not been immune to this trend, sharing reports on what Irish dairy companies use Bovaer (none found at the time of writing, it seems), or arguing that cows can’t really affect climate change (they can).
That last line of argument has long been spread in Irish circles, but mostly in an effort to protect dairy farmers from environmental regulation. However, those claims that cows can’t affect the climate have now been turned against a major player in the dairy sector itself.
So, what has Bill Gates got to do with it?
Despite widespread claims that Gates is the owner or otherwise behind Bovaer, no such connection has been shown and the makers of Bovaer have denied this.
Gates, the one-time richest man in the world, has been the subject of many conspiracy theories, including claims that he wants to replace the cattle industry with edible bugs.
The Journal has previously debunked claims that Gates had called for armies to arrest and forcibly vaccinate people. Gates regularly makes appearances in sporadic conspiracy theories, often as a character planning to depopulate the earth. Evidence for these claims are never supplied.
Gates, however, has backed an Australian start-up that plans to feed a chemical found in seaweed to cows to reduce greenhouse gasses. In other words, Gates isn’t behind Bovaer, he’s behind a rival.
Other claims about Bovaer focus on its impact on human health. The main piece of evidence presented for this is a label for the product sent to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by Elanco, an American company which manufactures the food additive. (The FDA approved the supplement).
That “representative label” in the letter includes a number of warnings, such as that the supplement should not be used for ruminants other than dairy cows “because safety and effectiveness have not been evaluated in these animals”.
Another warning reads: “not for human use”. It would not be unusual for safety specifications to differ between different species, particularly cows, which have a four-part stomach that ferments their feed, and humans, who don’t. It’s why people probably shouldn’t eat grass.
However, despite this, the warnings in the letter have set off alarm bells for some internet users. “Can you fucking read?” one user on X wrote alongside a screenshot of the sample label, with the same warnings highlighted in yellow. “Stop poisoning our food@ArlaDairyUK and @Tesco stop trying to kill your customers! #Bovaer. Boycott now!”
Arla Foods, the dairy co-operative targeted by the boycott campaign, has been quick to respond. “Bovaer does not filter through to humans when they consume dairy products,” it wrote in a message posted to its site on 3 December.
“Bovaer is specifically designed to break down in the cow’s digestive system and quickly decomposes into naturally occurring compounds already present in the stomach of a cow. This means it does not pass from the cow into the milk,” it wrote, noting that the additive has been studied for more than 15 years and is already in use in other countries.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) also concluded that the supplement “was of no concern for consumer safety and for the environment”, though advised against inhaling the pure chemical.
The supplement is approved for use in the European Union.
Responding to a request for comment, the EFSA said: “Studies showed that the active substance of Bovaer 10, 3-nitrooxypropanol (3-NOP), is not present in milk and in meat of animals fed with the additive. This means that the consumer is not exposed to the additive itself. NOPA (3-nitrooxypropionic acid) is the major breakdown product of 3-NOP and was found in milk at a very low concentration.
“EFSA’s experts concluded that NOPA is of no safety concern for the consumers of milk (no genotoxic potential, and the human exposure below the health-based guidance value identified). You can find the full scientific opinion here.”
Teagasc, the state agency providing agricultural research in Ireland, has already completed two studies on cows fed Bovaer, with another ongoing, saying it had no concerns on its effects on milk, The Farmers Journal reported.
While its results so-far have been positive, Teagasc warned that Ireland’s focus on grazing meant that there was little business case for farmers using the supplement.
In a post on social media yesterday, the UK’s Food Standards Agency also pointed to a blog it has published answering questions on Bovaer. It said that milk from cows given Bovaer is safe to drink.
“The additive is metabolised by the cows so does not pass into the milk,” it explained.
“Bovaer, a brand name for the additive 3-Nitrooxypropanol or “3-NOP”, has undergone rigorous safety assessments as part of the FSA’s market authorisation process, and is approved for use in Great Britain. It has also been approved for use in other countries including in the EU, Australia, Canada and the US.”
It also noted:
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