Fact-checking the Bovaer backlash

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 January 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Some social media users have been pouring milk down the drain and chucking their butter in the bin in protest over a new additive in cow feed that claims to reduce methane emissions.

The online posts, attacking Arla Food’s trial of Bovaer with three big supermarkets and 30 farms in the UK, have had millions of views.

So, what do we know – what is this additive and how is it going to tackle burpy cows? And what is the evidence it is safe?

We interrogate the science with Sharon Huws, professor in animal science, and food scientist Dr Stuart Farrimond...

Also this week, are billionaires really deserting Earth for space? What is the upshot for our plastic waste problem after global talks on a treaty ended in failure? And why, just why, are orcas being spotted wearing salmon hats?

Presenter: Victoria Gill Producers: Sophie Ormiston, Ella Hubber & Gerry Holt Editor: Martin Smith Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth 

To discover more fascinating science content, head to bbc.co.uk search for BBC Inside Science and follow the links to The Open University.

Transcript

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0:40.3	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:44.3	Hello, lovely curious-minded people. Welcome to the programme. Today, we have our own
0:49.3	scientific take on the marine fashion world as we investigate a bold new trend among killer whales. They're wearing
0:56.0	fish hats. I am fully supportive of all orca style choices, but we want to know why. And why do
1:02.6	billionaires seem to want to escape Earth and colonise other planets? But first, people have been
1:08.6	posting videos of themselves pouring milk away in protest over a new additive that's being tested in cow feed.
1:15.6	It's called bovia and it's been developed to make the cows that eat it burp less methane gas.
1:21.5	Just have a listen to this.
1:22.9	See what that is?
1:24.8	Yeah.
1:26.0	Arla, you're going down the drain, mate.
1:32.6	Won't be buying you again.
1:35.0	That's one of those protest posts on TikTok, and you might have seen a lot like it.
	...

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