A feed additive designed to make cow burps less gassy is at the centre of a backlash over supposed health concerns, with one Reform MP calling for a mass boycott of the company using it.
Arla Foods, a large dairy co-operative that supplies major British supermarkets, has begun a small trial of Bovaer, a supplement that when added to feed cuts the methane production of cows by about a third.
The supplement has been judged safe by regulators around the world, including independent academics in the UK — who also concluded it was not passed on in the milk.
After publicising the trial on X, however, the company was subjected to claims about the health effects of the supplement, including allegations that it was toxic, carcinogenic and affected fertility. Some of these are based on studies of its use at extremely high concentrations in rats. There were also claims it was linked to Bill Gates, the American philanthropist, who is investigating a different food supplement.
One of the key greenhouse gas contributions from farming is methane from cattle. This is produced during cows’ digestion process by an enzyme in the stomach that combines hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Bovaer, which is in use around the world, is designed to interfere with that enzyme, so that the two gases are not chemically joined.
Bas Padberg, the UK managing director of Arla Foods, said that what drew the company to the supplement was that it was already routinely added to food in dozens of countries, in tens of thousands of cows, and there was no evidence it was found in milk. He said: “We have committed to reduce our emissions. We would like our farmers to continue to produce healthy nutritious food. Bovaer is one of our levers.”
Arla Foods makes Lurpak butter and supplies milk products to Tesco, Morrisons and Aldi. Thirty farms are involved in its UK trial.
Padberg said that the last couple of days had been “intense” and completely unexpected. He added: “We were surprised, since this is a product used in so many countries, and has not led to a social media response before.” The campaign appeared to have begun when someone on X linked the supplement to separate work by Gates.
Dairy producers set up a website for farms in the UK to declare themselves “Bovaer free”. Rupert Lowe, the Reform MP, said: “I won’t be consuming anything containing Bovaer. I’ve requested that Defra [the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs] undertakes an urgent review of its use in our food system.”
Bovaer has been approved for use by regulators in the US and EU. The Food Standards Agency in the UK gave its approval last year, after a panel of independent experts including academics from the universities of Glasgow and Aberdeen, judged it to be safe. The evidence they considered included studies on toxicity and carcinogenicity to cattle, as well as whether it was passed on in the milk. They concluded it was not. One trial involved 80 cows given varying doses, which concluded it was safe for the cows at double the intended maximum dose. Regulators failed to find evidence of it in the milk.
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Responding to claims that the trial was sinister, Padberg said: “If there’s something we want to hide, why would we go out so massively and proudly with a statement on what we were doing?”
Global bovine burp plot or safety-tested supplement?
This time last week Bas Padberg, an executive at an international dairy co-operative, did not expect to be trying to explain why he was not the agent of a globalist plot centred on cow burps (Tom Whipple writes).
His company’s decision to use a feed additive that cut methane production seemed, to him, not merely uncontroversial but something to be proud of.
To understand how we got here, how Arla Foods is now at the centre of a social media storm, you won’t gain much insight from the 23-page Food Standards Agency report into the additive’s safety.
Instead, the best explanation comes from the statements made in the past two days by his company, specifically those distancing it from Gates. Gates also backs feed supplements and, initially, Arla’s was wrongly linked to his. Padberg is clear on his view of what is going on. What he sees is “misinformation … It’s not correct. It’s parts of information, or parts of reports without showing the conclusion. We follow the science, not the rumour.”
Most of us have neither the time nor the expertise to second-guess the regulators, but if you really want to it’s possible. In its report on the supplement, 3-Nitrooxypropanol, otherwise known as Bovaer 12, independent experts from different universities laid out their logic.
Feeds have, of course, gone wrong in the past, most notably and tragically with BSE (mad cow disease). But the panel concluded that enough studies had been done to satisfy them this additive, which interferes with methane production before breaking down into natural byproducts, was safe for cows, and consumers.
Theirs is a routine job few of us think about. In the same batch they also reported on the safety of 11 other feed additives that, oddly, have been missed by social media. But if sceptics don’t want to trust the regulators they should examine those too. There’s a lot of reading material though: you might need a glass of milk to keep you going.
