Burger King is testing a new eco-friendly diet for cows

The environment is a huge concern right now, no matter how you try to dress it up. Global warming is a very real threat and people are trying all sorts of ways to make our lives more sustainable. That extends to what we eat. It's been well-debated by this point that some of the animals that we get our meat from produce a lot of, let's say, gas... methane gas in particular. The kind of gases caused by burps and fasts. It's been estimated that livestock produce up to 14.5% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions per year, something that's quite a lot when you factor in how many greenhouse gases get pumped out into the atmosphere overall.

Cows, the source of the meat for a lot of our favourite fast food products, are easily the worst offenders for this. As a result, there's been a lot of research into whether a change in the diet cows are fed can reduce their propensity to burp and fart. This is something that Burger King is putting a lot of weight behind and on July 14th Burger King announced that it would be partnering up with scientists to develop a new diet for the cows that are used for its burgers. Part of this diet requires the cows to be fed 100 grams of lemongrass leaves during the last four months of their lives. According to the results from initial studies, this new diet was able to reduce the methane emissions of cows by up to 33%.

It's not enough to just throw the figures at people however, so Burger King decided to add a bit of extra pizzaz to the announcement. It was paired with a very psychedelic video featuring a country song about farting cows and global warming sung by Mason Ramsey. Yes, that Mason Ramsey. The kid who went viral for yodelling in a Wal-Mart. Burger King have also already released their first product using meat from cows that have been fed the new diet, called the Reduced Methane Emissions Beef Whopper. Maybe they're saving a snappier name for it for later...

The Reduced Methane Emissions Beef Whopper are currently available at select Burger King restaurants in Miami, New York, Austin, Portland and Los Angeles while supplies last.