Millions of preschoolers can tell a pig from a cow, but when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, can adults hold up their end of the discussion? Marlowe and Chad, aka the Bacon Buddies and hosts of the “Raised on the Farm” podcast, sit down with Frank Mitloehner to talk about food choices — and why they should remain so — how swine farms and cattle operations differ in respect to GHGs, the U.S. animal ag emissions report card and most of all, why we need to keep talking and learning. 

Yanhong Liu, an associate professor of animal nutrition and a member of the CLEAR Center at University of California, Davis (UC Davis), is bolstering the work of the five-year-long international PIG-PARADIGM study currently underway. In addition to lending her well-regarded expertise in animal nutrition and experience gained from her work to reduce antibiotics use in swine, Liu and other faculty from UC Davis are leading a project team of postdoctoral researchers and Ph.D. candidates in nutrition, microbiology and big data analysis.

Among the many challenges facing hog farmers in the United States is the commonly occurring incidence of post-weaning diarrhea. At best, the affliction requires the administration of antibiotics; at worst, it results in the spread of infection among weaned pigs, at times leading to more diarrhea, loss of appetite and even their death.