What Cost Cow Burps?

This week New Zealand unveiled a draft plan to tax farm-based methane emissions in an effort to fight climate change, which is another way of saying that the country is putting a price on belching cows and sheep.

The island nation has a human population of five million who share the island with 10 million cows and 26 million sheep. Under the plan farmers will begin paying (a yet undecided amount) for methane emissions in 2025, with revenue from the scheme invested in research and other services for farmers. Details expected by December.

If this scheme were proposed in the US, there would be all kinds of backlash from Big Agriculture, amplified by far right media outlets and blessed by “objective” both-sides journalists in the mainstream press. By December, the policy proposal would surely be dead or watered down beyond recognition. In NZ, the farmers keep calm and carry on.

“We've been working with the government and other organizations on this for years to get an approach that won't shut down farming in New Zealand, so we've signed off on a lot of stuff we're happy with,” dairy farmer and national president of Federated Farmers of New Zealand Andrew Hoggard told the BBC.

Not that he’s happy with everything. “But you know, like all of these types of agreements with many parties involved, there's always going to be a couple of dead rats you have to swallow,” Hoggard added.

About 60 percent of methane emissions come from human sources. New Zealand’s plan would be the first to charge farmers for the gassy effusions of the animals they keep and eat.

Photo credit: Tom Westbrook / Reuters