Can you tax a cow’s burps? New Zealand will be the first to try.

[DGUtley]

Can you tax a cow’s burps? New Zealand will be the first to try.

In a nation with seven times more livestock than people, taxing farmers for herds’ greenhouse gas emissions is a controversial proposal.




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In this picturesque South Pacific country, it’s a recurring scene: Where grass grows, livestock graze.*New Zealand has seven times more residents on four legs than on two—5 million people to 26 million sheep and 10 million cows—and dairy, meat, and wool account for more than half the nation’s export revenue.* But this abundance comes with an environmental cost. Half of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, mostly as biological methane and nitrous oxide from livestock burps, urine, and manure.*


So last month, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern unveiled a plan for New Zealand’s farmers to pay new taxes based on calculations of their herds’ emissions. The money raised by the tax would be returned to the ag industry for research, technology, and incentive payments to farmers for their efforts to reduce greenhouse gases—by planting trees on their land, for example.
*

The week after the plan was released, an advocacy group called Groundswell NZ organised protests in more than 50 cities and towns around the country. Farmers drove their tractors slowly on busy highways and city streets, snarling traffic. In downtown Auckland, a tractor carried a sign with the message “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you!” Other signs read “Enough is enough” and “Farming tax = Death to rural NZ.”

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https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk...=pocket-newtab

[FindersKeepers]

I'm pretty sure the "emissions" they're talking about are not 'burps."

[Peter1469]

At least they are grass fed. Corn fed cows fart out much, much more methane.

[LescoBrandon]

We might be looking at the making of history, when New Zealand, as an entire country, wins the coveted Darwin Award.

[Admiral Ackbar]

That PM they have is a Communist pure and simple. They rule by decree there and the people have no freedom.

Revolution to form a Republic is the only option they have left.

[carolina73]

At least they are grass fed. Corn fed cows fart out much, much more methane.

I'll refrain from asking for more info on that.

[Peter1469]

I'll refrain from asking for more info on that.

Cows are ruminants. They can't digest corn well. That is why corn-fed cows are unhealthy forcing the farmers to dose them with antibiotics. Farm use of antibiotics is the main driver of the anti-bacterial resistant bugs. Scientists predict that we may soon see enough of those that any surgery will run the risk of death as would a bad cut at home.

[Tahuyaman]

At least they are grass fed. Corn fed cows fart out much, much more methane.

But exclusively grass fed beef tastes like crap.

Steers and other beef cattle should be fed a combination of hay, alfalfa, grass and various grains to include corn.

[Dr. Who]

Can you tax a cow’s burps? New Zealand will be the first to try.

In a nation with seven times more livestock than people, taxing farmers for herds’ greenhouse gas emissions is a controversial proposal.




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In this picturesque South Pacific country, it’s a recurring scene: Where grass grows, livestock graze.*New Zealand has seven times more residents on four legs than on two—5 million people to 26 million sheep and 10 million cows—and dairy, meat, and wool account for more than half the nation’s export revenue.* But this abundance comes with an environmental cost. Half of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, mostly as biological methane and nitrous oxide from livestock burps, urine, and manure.*


So last month, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern unveiled a plan for New Zealand’s farmers to pay new taxes based on calculations of their herds’ emissions. The money raised by the tax would be returned to the ag industry for research, technology, and incentive payments to farmers for their efforts to reduce greenhouse gases—by planting trees on their land, for example.
*

The week after the plan was released, an advocacy group called Groundswell NZ organised protests in more than 50 cities and towns around the country. Farmers drove their tractors slowly on busy highways and city streets, snarling traffic. In downtown Auckland, a tractor carried a sign with the message “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you!” Other signs read “Enough is enough” and “Farming tax = Death to rural NZ.”

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https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk...=pocket-newtab

That industry must account for a significant portion of their GDP, so what is this tax supposed to accomplish? There's already massive research into greenhouse gas emission reduction. They aren't going to discover something new with the piddling amount of tax they are going to extract from the cattle industry. They are just going to reduce the incomes of ranchers.

[Peter1469]

But exclusively grass fed beef tastes like crap.

Steers and other beef cattle should be fed a combination of hay, alfalfa, grass and various grains to include corn.

Grass fed beef tastes different than corn fed. With corn fed the ribeye is my favorite cut. In grass fed I don't like the ribeye, but the sirloin and flat iron are very good.