In the past we've heard that something like 18% of carbon emissions in the U.S. come from cattle: transportation of meat and dairy products to marketplaces, production and transportation of feed, slaughter and meatpacking, etc. Some healthy foods and environmental activists used this information to warn consumers about eating less meat.

Now a new study sponsored by the Center for U.S. Dairy, and industry group, says only 2% of greenhouse emissions come from dairy cows. See this from ScienceDaily.com:

Forget all the tacky jokes about cow flatulence causing climate change. A new study reports that the dairy industry is responsible for only about 2.0 percent of all US greenhouse gas emissions.

The study, led by the University of Arkansas in association with Michigan Technological University, measures the carbon footprint of a gallon of fluid milk from farm to table and uses 2007 and 2008 data from more than 500 dairy farms and 50 dairy processors, as well as data from more than 210,000 round trips transporting milk from farm to processing plant. It was commissioned by the Innovation Center for the US Dairy, an industry-wide group.

Is it just me, or is a study by the industry less than reliable?