Is this the look of an embarrassed Argentinian Cow?  Perhaps we’ll never know.

This is a snapshot of a cow that, willingly or not, participated in a recent experiment funded by the government of Argentina to measure the methane “output” of our bovine friends.  A tube is inserted into the cow’s, ahem, gas-producing orifice, and linked to a big, pink balloon on its back. “Oh this?  Why, it’s nothing.  Don’t open that valve!”

Apparently, the cow’s didn’t mind.  Perhaps after getting a numbered tag crudely stapled to your ear, carrying around a lightweight gas tank is calf’s play.  Still, if I was at a party with a deflated plastic bladder attached to my rear end, and it suddenly, in the middle of some great witty banter, inflated, I’d head for the door pronto.  Maybe cows don’t have parties.

Some good did come out of this ridiculousness.  The Argentine government established that fully 30% of its total national greenhouse gas emissions come from their more than 55 million cows.  And methane is more than 20 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than the much-more-demonized CO2.  So the Argentines are now experimenting with different types of feed for their livestock to try and reduce the methane emissions.

Probably, we should all give up beef, which as a food source is among the most inefficient in terms of land and feed use.

But until that time, perhaps more cows will have to suffer the embarrassment of the pink balloon.