Over the last fifteen years, social media has revolutionised much about our individual lives and societies. However, what started as a way to stay in touch with old friends and acquaintances, has turned into a vehicle for non-stop data mining, constant marketing, dopamine addiction, bullying and the breeding ground for more conspiracy theories than we ever knew existed. I thought that flat earth, pizza gate and 5-G conspiracies had showed us the bottom of this black hole of paranoia. But social media’s ability to harvest our fear and the narcissist’s taste for ridiculous performative outrage might have just found a new low last week in the UK.
There have been conspiracy theories about the rich wanting to slowly kill us. Climate change deniers have long believed that global warming was an invention of the elites. There have also been plenty of genuine food scares about toxic foods. Mad cow disease is an emblematic case of the latter. But what we have not had is a nexus of conspiracy that intersects these two issues as well as one of mankind’s favourite taboo: flatulence. Enter the anti-Bovaer conspiracy.
The Conspiracy Theory & The Hypocrisy
The anti-Bovaer conspiracy emerged following an announcement at the end of November by Danish-Swedish company Arla Foods (UK) that it had “joined forces with some of the biggest retailers in the country to tackle methane emissions. In a first-of-its-kind joint initiative, the project will see a collective effort across the food industry to trial the use of Bovaer®, a feed additive that reduces enteric methane emissions from cows on average, by 27%”.
A search on Google Trends shows that the term exploded in interest following the announcement. Peaking on December 3rd.
It is not possible to know exactly when the outrage started, but coverage of this issue has pointed to comments by British Reform UK party MP Rupert Lowe as having triggered a backlash against Arla. Not to waste a good bout of collective hysteria, the British tabloid media raced to cover the issue in its typical fashion.
On December 3rd, the Daily Mail noted that “Furious Brits have vowed to boycott more than a dozen of the UK’s best known brands over fears that certain dairy products are allegedly ‘contaminated’ with an additive linked to cancer.” Presumably to help them in this endeavour, it published a list of such Arla foods Bovaer ‘Contaminated’. GB News, the UK’s answer to Fox News, noted that “Patrick Holden, one of King Charles’s farming advisers and a pioneer of organic farming in the UK, has accused the company of “re-engineering the cow” through the use of the controversial supplement.”
Following his comments and subsequent reaction to them, Lowe qualified his position noting that “My position on Bovaer is clear. I won’t be touching it. No conspiracy, I just want my food to be as natural as possible. If that’s ‘populism’, then so be it.”
The more natural the better. But his reaction would sound more genuine if it wasn’t for the fact that Nigel Farage, the leader of the Reform UK party and Lowes’ boss, has stated that he is open to the possibility that the UK could import chlorinated chicken from the USA.
Is Bovaer Safe?
The backlash against Bovaer caused Arla, Bovaer’s producer DSM-Firmenich and even the UK Food Standards Agency to come forward and defend the additive.
On December 2nd, DSM-Firmenich the manufacturer of the additive, noted that the “recent announcement of the Bovaer® trials in the UK has caused mistruths and misinformation about its safety” before listing the scientific facts about the additive. “Provided it is used as recommended, Bovaer® is fully metabolized by the cow and is not present in milk or meat, so there is no consumer exposure. It never enters into milk or meat and therefore does not reach consumers. Regulatory and scientific trials show that Bovaer® poses no risk to health for consumers nor animals and it has no impact on milk production or reproduction.”
On December 3rd, Arla echoed DSM-Firmenich in emphasising that “Bovaer® does not filter through to humans when they consume dairy products” and that there is “evidence that it does not harm the animals or negatively impact [cows’] health, productivity, or the quality of milk. (…) Bovaer® has been worked on for 15 years, and is being used in approximately 25 countries across more than 200,000 cows.”
By December 5th, the UK Food Standards Agency felt the need to also publish a blog post about Bovaer on its page, addressing safety concerns, how testing was conducted, and noted that the additive has been approved for use globally. Furthermore, the agency also notes that “feed additives are not labelled within the ingredients list of food products,” thus making Lowe’s concern about the lack of labelling seem irrelevant.
What I did notice was that for the product to be safe, it should be used “as recommended”. Digging down into the more technical parts of the UK Food Standards Agency records, you can read their conclusion:
“The AFFAJEG [the Animal Feed and Feed Additives Joint Expert Group] concluded that the additive can be considered safe for the target species at a maximum dose of 200 mg/kg DM […] Concentrations of 3-NOP and its metabolites in milk and edible tissues are not expected to reach levels of concern. The additive should be considered corrosive to the eyes, a skin irritant and potentially harmful by inhalation; it is not a skin sensitizer. It was concluded the additive poses an acceptable risk to the environment.”
So perhaps not 100% safe at higher doses, after all.
Fighting Climate Change Through Bovine Flatulence
Cows graze, consume grass and eventually digest it, which inevitably leads to methane emissions, the old fashion way. Apparently, it is not nothing. According to a 2023 report by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that livestock supply chains represent 14.5% of human induced GHG emissions (a more recent draft report mentions 11.1%).
Perhaps it is just me, but I find bovine flatulence an endlessly amusing topic. But this is a serious issue, and one that needs addressing. So when a company like DSM-Firmenich develops Bovaer, climate minded farmers paid attention.
No one is saying that climate change is the cows’ fault. The issue is that the world is more populous than ever and beef is a significant source of food for humans. In 2022, the world produced 76.25 million tonnes of beef and buffalo meat, 20.9 million tonnes more than in 1990. The aforementioned claim that Bovaer lowers methane emissions from cows by 27% suggests that the application of this additive could potentially achieve significant decreases in GHG emissions. Flatulence being what it is, it might also provide a more comfortable life for the cows.
Behind these genuine climate concerns, let’s not forget that there are also huge profits at stake. It appears that, under the pressure of the animal food supplement industry, the US FDA is passing a law that will make it easier to approve drugs such as Bovaer and bypass lengthy and costly testing in the name of the environment. The cattle industry and its feed- and supplement-suppliers face huge losses if we give into the climate-advocates pressure and shift to a less meat-rich diet. There may even be something to gain in the short term for Bovaer users in countries offering subsidies to farmers who can demonstrate a reduction in emissions. Let’s not forget that, like ‘Big Oil’, ‘Big Cow’ is unlikely to be purely motivated by the greater good.
The Clue in Conspiracy Theories
Conspiracy theories rely on, exploit and increase distrust and antagonism against institutions. In a year when Daron Acemoglu was among the Economic Nobel prize winners, it is worth remembering the crucial role of well-function institutions for economic development, growth and prosperity. Public trust is good if it is earned.
Conspiracy theories do serve one purpose: to put the onus on institutions to do their job well and earn the trust they demand from us. I have no reason to believe that Bovaer is anything other than safe. But imagine it turns out someone does not use it “as recommended”? What happens then? Suddenly my quips about bovine flatulence will seem like a lot of misplaced and inappropriate hot air.
No one is perfect. But some people have more responsibilities than others and must be held to a higher standard. The clue in the flourishing of conspiracy theories is that the narratives provided by authorities are no longer trusted. In the aftermath of the 2007-09 financial crisis, the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis, the Iraq war and the mistakes made by several governments during the COVID-19 pandemic, we shouldn’t be surprised that public trust in experts and institutions has eroded.
