Cow Fart Tax Coming Down The Chute

resistance is futile! the bottom line is if it is financially beneficial in a capitalist society it will be done. i agree we should definitely cut all meat consumption bacwards drastically. look at the rampant obesity. there are other ways to get protein and fat content into your diet. the problem is there is already a profitable system in line for cattle farming, and dismantling or just gradual revamping will take more effort than politicians want to really tackle. don't forget they have to make time for the year long campaigns these days. plus, they don't want to be too much of a detrament to the fast food companies by encouraging consumers to eat less meat. their market needs americans consuming enormous amounts of beef. why else would they come up with a dollar menu marketing strategy? something has to be done to appease the enviro-voters as well, so thats why they come up with a taxation platform because more money will fix everything. right? this is not an attack on farmers, if they wanted to attack farmers all they would have to do is cut out their outrageous subsidies. i tell you what i'd like to see though, A FAT TAX! we'd generate enough revenue or spark enough dietary conciousness to fix the healthcare woes.

Not the smartest idea but an issue that does need to be dealt with seriously.

The article above has some other ideas - like using the methane to create energy, fertilisers, manure.

This is simply ludicrous. Blame the cow not the corporations for pollution. MOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Taxing farmers is an idea that is off the mark. The point is to stop polluting the atmosphere, so why not take the direction suggested by Michael Pollan in the New York Times Magazine article, Farmer in Chief, from the October 12, 2008: encourage the farmers to go back to the old-fashioned methods of rotating crops and livestock on the land, instead of keeping cows in feed pens. If they are allowed to graze on grasslands, cows automatically fertilize the soil and eat the weeds, making a perfect foundation for the growing of crops when you rotate them to another pasture. This way you don't end up with ponds full of cow crap releasing methane. Have you ever driven past Harris Ranch along I-5 in California? It reeks, and there's not a blade of grass in sight!

Americans eat too much beef, causing mass breeding programs and extremely large cow populations.

I used to be amazed to watch the endless line of cows walking up the ramp into Tri-Miller's slaughter house. It' really amazing how much cattle they can process in a single day and they do this day after day after day...

They slaughter so many cows, they have big blood ponds to deal with all the bodily fluids, you can imagine the stench...

We just need to not eat so much beef... instead of a big-mac everyday, how about once a week??

Taxation without representation. This is the epitome of America. Taxing a cow fart. I wonder who thought this up. "Hey, Senator Bob, what do think of putting a tax on cow farts. Why? Because it smells? No silly, because it's not good for the environment.... Good idea."

What's next? The air that we breathe?

This proposal is a clear attack on the ability of American farmers to produce sufficient food for ourselves. Tax farmers high enough and they'll quit raising animals. Then where will America get the meat, milk and eggs we need to maintain good brain health? What happens to our country then?

total bullshit

Then we could compress it and sell it to owners of the next generation of hybrids. This would be a great selling point for the big 3. When they make their next pitch for 34 billion they should bring this up. Or should I say out?

Details aside, animal methane does present a definite threat to the biota. It's believed 18 percent of the greenhouse effect is caused by methane, putting it second on the list of offending gases behind carbon dioxide. Methane breaks down in the atmosphere to form carbon dioxide, ozone, and water, all of which absorb heat. The temperature of the atmosphere rises, the ice caps melt, and next thing you know you're pumping the Atlantic Ocean out of your basement.

There are several major sources of methane: rice paddies (methane-producing bacteria thrive in the underwater environment), swamps and wetlands (ditto), mining and oil drilling, landfills, termites (although there's still some controversy on this one), "biomass burning" (notably in the Amazon rain forest), and animals. Ninety percent of animal methane is produced by ruminants (i.e., cud-chewers). These include sheep, goats, camels, water buffalo, and so on, but most of all cattle, of which the world has an estimated 1.2 billion.

Ruminants eat hay and grass and stuff containing cellulose, which can be digested only by special microbes that, to minimize commuting problems, live in the ruminants' guts. Unfortunately, the microbes tend to make a mess, and about 6 or 7 percent of what they eat winds up as methane. Thus the problem.

Now, you're probably saying, what the hey, cows have been around forever, how come all of a sudden they're a threat? All we know is this: atmospheric methane has been increasing at the alarming rate of 1 percent a year, and something's got to be causing it. The world cattle population is thought to have increased in the last decade, and Lord knows the Brazilians don't feel like taking any more heat for torching the Amazon. So hey, let's blame the cows.