Here it comes; The Cow Fart Tax

Proposed fee on smelly cows, hogs angers farmers

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – For farmers, this stinks: Belching and gaseous cows and hogs could start costing them money if a federal proposal to charge fees for air-polluting animals becomes law.

Farmers so far are turning their noses up at the notion, which is one of several put forward by the Environmental Protection Agency after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that greenhouse gases emitted by belching and flatulence amounts to air pollution.

"This is one of the most ridiculous things the federal government has tried to do," said Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks, an outspoken opponent of the proposal.

It would require farms or ranches with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs to pay an annual fee of about $175 for each dairy cow, $87.50 per head of beef cattle and $20 for each hog.

The executive vice president of the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, Ken Hamilton, estimated the fee would cost owners of a modest-sized cattle ranch $30,000 to $40,000 a year. He said he has talked to a number of livestock owners about the proposals, and "all have said if the fees were carried out, it would bankrupt them."

Sparks said Wednesday he's worried the fee could be extended to chickens and other farm animals and cause more meat to be imported.

"We'll let other countries put food on our tables like they are putting gas in our cars. Other countries don't have the health standards we have," Sparks said. [...]

With continuing rising food prices, do we really need to be adding food taxes and driving farmers out of business? The government won't allow us to drill our own oil, now they want to limit our food production. Are we supposed to depend on foreigners for everything? Whatever happened to American self-sufficiency?

President-elect Obama wants to spend billions to rebuild our nations roads and bridges. I can support him in that, because it needs to be done, and it's a traditional function of government. But should regulating cow farts become a function of government?



It's essentially a meat tax, and while vegetarians may be pleased by it, I think few others will. Big government will always think of endless new ways to raise new taxes and control people by limiting the things they depend on for life and freedom. But only if we let them. We should draw a line here.


Related Links:

A Tax on Cow Farts to fight Global Warming


Cow Farts Collected For Global Warming Study
     

A Tax on Cow Farts to fight Global Warming

Just when you think you've seen it all. From Nealz Nuze:

THE LATEST GLOBAL WARMING TAX

When you want to save the planet from a non-existent crisis ... taxes and wealth redistribution seems like the way to go. In Estonia, farmers will now be taxed for the methane emissions produced by their cattle. Cattle produce the largest amounts of methane gas through belching and flatulence ... this accounts for 15-25% of overall gas emissions. One cow has the ability to produce an average of about 350 liters of methane and 1,500 liters of carbon dioxide each and every single day.

Apparently this isn't the first country to propose taxes along these lines. New Zealand also proposed a flatulence tax because New Zealand cattle are responsible for 90% of the country's methane emissions.

This "flatulence tax" is yet another way to creatively drive up food prices. Instead of taxing cow farts, which is methane, why not instead extract the methane from the manure of all farm animals and turn it into fuel, instead of using corn? Feed the corn to the animals to make manure, and turn the manure into fuel. The technologies involved in converting methane from manure into fuel have greatly improved since the idea was first explored in the 1970's. Recycling a waste product into something useful makes more sense than inefficiently wasting a food product that's needed elsewhere.