Yesterday I learned that Jennifer Doudna, winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her groundbreaking work developing CRISPR genome editing, is leading a research project through her Innovative Genomics Institute to use CRISPR to genetically alter the microbiome of cows to produce less methane, among other things:

• https://innovativegenomics.org/news/audacious-project-crispr-microbiome/
• https://www.ucdavis.edu/food/news/can-crispr-cut-methane-emissions-cow-guts

Less methane sounds great. Unfortunately, the methane emitted by cows is only part of the problem with our current cattle farming practices. Cows require a lot of land, water, and food (food which could potentially be used directly by humans in the first place, by the way…). Raising beef can use up to ten times more resources than poultry, dairy, eggs or pork.

In fact, if this project is successful, it will likely only lead to more cows being raised and increasing the commensurate harms to the environment that that entails, cf. Jevons Paradox.

Who am I to question a Nobel laureate, but wouldn’t it be better to just drastically slash the number of cattle that we’re raising?