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British consumers are staging mass boycotts of milk and dairy products after leading dairies and supermarkets colluded to feed cows a controversial chemical that reduces flatulation and burps to combat "global warming."
The feed additive, Bovaer, manufactured by the animal nutrition company DSM-Firmenich, is the brand name for 3-Nitrooxypropanol (3-NOP), a methane mitigator that is being fed to lactating dairy cattle to reduce enteric methane emissions. However, lab tests performed on animals strongly suggest the substance causes cancer and thus could be toxic to humans as well.
Arla Foods, which owns the UK's biggest dairy cooperative and produces a dozen of Britain's best-known dairy brands, has been hit with crippling boycotts after it announced the trial of Bovaer on November 26. The experiment is being trialed across 30 British farms.
Britain's top supermarket chains — Aldi, Asda, Morrisons, and Tesco — have been blacklisted for selling the contaminated brands, with leading social media personalities posting information about Arla's products and the side effects of Bovaer on X.
The prestigious supermarket Marks & Spencer is also facing a milk boycott in Ireland after it displayed an "Irish Milk" sign stating: "We're the only national retailer using a new feed supplement to reduce methane emissions from M&S Select Farm dairy cows."
This should matter to U.S. consumers, because Bovaer is headed across the Atlantic to dairy farms here.
Social Media War
The debate has trigged a social media war, with Arla Foods blocking X users from commenting on its post justifying the use of Bovaer and mainstream media outlets claiming that the boycotts are being fueled by "conspiracy theories" which falsely link the additive to Bill Gates.
Posts on X attacking Bovaer have gone viral, with nearly 13,000 comments attacking Arla's policy and 6.5 million on the dairy's post announcing its trial before the company disabled commenting. Videos have also gone viral on TikTok of consumers sharing clips of themselves pouring Arla's milk products down the toilet and dumping packs of Lurpak butter in the trash.
The boycott has hit the dairy giant so hard that supermarkets are being forced to slash prices. Some supermarkets are even giving Arla's products given away for free, but still, consumers have refused to take them. One X user commented: "No one wants your poison even if it is FREE." Consumers have posted a flurry of pictures of supermarket shelves sagging under the unsold dairy products.
"Sounds wonderful. Would you like some cancer with your milk?" asks Leilani Dowding, a media celebrity who is a regular guest on the Mark Steyn Show. Dowding posted a screenshot from the Advisory Committee on Animal Feedingstuffs highlighting the text: "concluded there was evidence of carcinogenicity in female rats."
"The chemical was found in 4/5 samples of milk tested. It was also found in liver, adrenals, muscle & brain. Ovary size was reduced. Rats treated with it failed to get pregnant," wrote medical doctor Jennnine Morgan in a response to FarmingUK's promotion of Bovaer. "Do you deny it says this in the study documents?" she asked.
UK to Mandate Additive to Meet UN Goal
Despite these concerns, Britain's left-wing government hit back at protestors by announcing on November 15 that it is planning to mandate the use of methane-inhibiting additives such as Bovaer by 2030 to meet the goals of the UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.
The document issued by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) claims that methane emissions accounts "for a significant proportion (54%) of agricultural emissions" and that "UK livestock is responsible for 66% of agriculture's total greenhouse gas emissions."
Since "ruminant livestock mostly emit methane" through burping and flatulence, it would make it compulsory for farmers to dose British cattle with given Bovaer or similar products by 2030, the Daily Mail reported.
Climate alarmists citing the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Global Methane Assessment claim that methane emissions from cow burps and farts generate 15% of greenhouse gas emissions each year. The report recommends feeding artificial additives to dairy cows to reduce methane production by 2030.
Bovaer in the USA?
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) also insisted that Bovaer posed no safety concerns when used at the correct dosage. According to FSA's website, it does not cause cancer, and milk from cows given Bovaer "is safe to drink" since "the additive is metabolised by the cows so does not pass into the milk."
However, a study cited in a May 24 U.S. Food and Drug Administration letter dated notes that while Bovaer "is expected to pose low risk to humans or animals under the conditions of its intended use," it "may damage male fertility and reproductive organs, is potentially harmful when inhaled, and is a skin and eye irritant."
The FDA also confirmed that Bovaer is an "unapproved drug," adding: "Our intent not to enforce certain animal drug requirements is based on our current understanding of the product."
Further, the FDA warned that the chemical is not meant for use "in dry dairy cows, bulls, replacement heifers or bulls, growing cattle, or other ruminant species because safety and effectiveness have not been evaluated in these animals."
The battle over Bovaer is expected to spread to the U.S. with Jeff Simmons — president and CEO of Elanco Animal Health, DSM-Firmenich's U.S. partner — cherry-picking from the FDA ruling and claiming that its greenlight "has the ability to accelerate the opportunity for climate-neutral dairy farming while creating a new revenue stream for dairy farmers across the country."
Bill Gates Invests in Gas-Reducing Additives
While Bill Gates has no financial stake in Bovaer, the software billionaire's Breakthrough Energy Ventures has invested $12 million in Rumin 8, an Australian company aiming to feed seaweed supplements to cows in order to reduce their methane emissions.
"We are on a mission to decarbonise 100 million cattle by 2030" using a "highly scalable, repeatable and low-cost pharmaceutical process to synthesize and stabilize the target compound Tribromomethane (TBM), originally found in seaweed," Rumin 8 states on its website.
In a 2023 interview with the Lowy Institute, a think tank based in Sydney, Australia, Gates pointed out that there are two paths to solving the emissions of cows, who "burp and fart methane to an extreme degree."
"You can either fix the cows to stop them doing that or you can make beef without the cow. Both of those will be pursued to see which one can lead to the best product in terms of taste, health, and cost," Gates explained.
"I do think all rich countries should move to 100% synthetic beef. You can get used to the taste difference, and the claim is they're going to make it taste even better over time," he said in 2021 interview with MIT Technology Review.
"For Africa and other poor countries, we'll have to use animal genetics to dramatically raise the amount of beef per emissions for them," he added.
King Charles III's Advisor Blasts Bovaer
Responding to the social media firestorm, Arla said in a statement: "A significant amount of misinformation has been circulating online." It insisted that the company's "commitment to reducing our climate impact is unwavering but we would never do so in a way that jeopardises the health of our consumers or the welfare of our animals."
However, in a blow to the government and Big Dairy, one of King Charles III's farming advisors, Patrick Holden, has accused Arla Foods of "re-engineering the cow."
Holden told The Telegraph that Arla had "resorted to feed additives to maintain positive PR for their dairy-farming industry" and the chemical had been "declared safe and therefore harmless to consumers of products from treated dairy cows."
"Feeding cows potions to reduce emissions is a classic case of the dairy industry, and I use that word advisedly, treating the symptoms rather than the cause of the problem," Holden warned.
"The cause in this case is separating the dairy cow from her natural environment of which she is intrinsically a part. Once this separation has occurred, both physically and in the mindset of society, methane becomes a problem which needs to be addressed by re-engineering the cow."
Earlier this year, a subacute toxicity study of 3-nitrooxypropanol conducted by the Food Safety Commission of Japan revealed that "1) Decrease in the absolute and relative weights of male testis and epididymis, 2) Decrease in sperm counts, 3) Decrease in the motor activity of the sperm."
Meanwhile, a website christened Full Fart Milk has been set up to provide a detailed list of farmers who are refusing to dose their cows with Bovaer. Several dairy farms have also issued statements on social media assuring consumers that their products are free of any toxic additives.
Dr. Jules Gomes, (BA, BD, MTh, PhD), has a doctorate in biblical studies from the University of Cambridge. Currently a Vatican-accredited journalist based in Rome, he is the author of five books and several academic articles. Gomes lectured at Catholic and Protestant seminaries and universities and was canon theologian and artistic director at Liverpool Cathedral.
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