Linseed stops cows belching methane

Daily Telegraph story: Linseed stops cows belching methane

Essential fatty acid for health and prevents greenhouse gasses

The Daily Telegraph printed the story this Tuesday 29th March 2011: (Here’s a link) I don’t think this is an early April Fool as it is such a good article on linseed’s health benefits for people, including improving the human digestion and that “it also contains Omega 3, a fatty acid that is essential to normal growth and health.”

Linseed prevents greenhouse gasses

Roughly the gist of the story is that if you feed linseed to cattle it generates good bacteria (just like it does for people!) and much less methane (one of the worst “greenhouse” gasses) is produced and the omega-3 in it helps to keep the cattle healthier – and I expect happier.  🙂

Funnily enough, this wasn’t a new concept to me. I had a lovely friend a Borough Market, Ian/Ion (?) he dressed flamboyantly in the clothes Oxfam threw out, collected all sorts of leftover food from Borough Market which he shared with those in need of food or cheering up. He was highly intelligent, interesting, entertaining, very knowledgeable, especially history, current and past world affairs and a good sort of understanding of science and he spoke at least 11 languages – evidenced by him translating for various SE Asian and African customers that came to the Flax Farm stall. He collected relevant linseed/flax newspaper cuttings for me. He also came up with marketing ideas. Five years ago one of which was for me to grow thousands and thousands of acres of linseed and promote it as wonder-food that should be fed to cows to stop them farting methane… I now wish I could remember where he got the idea, was it an intuitive stab in the dark or what? I suspect he had read early research in some learned journal. Unfortunately, we won’t know because he died early this year and he is a great loss to Borough Market.

Explore our site to find out how linseed’s omega-3 and unique balance of soluble and insoluble fibre can help keep people healthier and how it can help your digestion. Read more about linseed flaxseed for the digestion.