Livestock emissions called a threat

[Robin]

There was an article in our local paper on Wed., Dec. 10 re: the above title which includes “Global warming talks could lead to tax on cattle”. The article mentions the belching and defecation of cows & cattle is producitng harmful greenhouse gases.
You can pull this up on http://www.recordonline.com. It is from The Times Herald Record, Middletown, NY.
I understand there have been other recent articles reagarding this topic.
The folks putting these laws together don’t have a clue about farming.
More manure coming from Washington!!

[dominiquer60]

This cow tax could also effect other ruminants such as sheep and deer, and possibly pigs and chickens too. There is a great deal of proposed legislation and policy that can hurt many farmers no matter what your size is. I know that the NY Farm Bureau easily came to the decision that they were opposed to the “cow tax.” I am sure that many other state FBs, Dairy and Beef lobbists are already crying their objections.

I attended the NYFB state meeting this week, it was a great learning experience. I was pleased to see an Organic veggie farmer was attempting to run for the President of NYFB. He didn’t win but had some great ideas centered around opposing a bunch of regulations. I personally watched him stand up in front of the entire delegation and change the NYFB policy to oppose potential food safety regulations that could put a lot of small farmers out of business. The great part was that the big conservative veggie farmers from the west fully supported his motions and the policies were passed. The trick is that even though it is FB policy, if it isn’t a big enough problem or doesn’t impact industrial Ag than FB doesn’t do much about it.

I feel that small family farms (some like to think that their 30 employee, 1,000 acre farm run by their family is a “family farm” so I use “small” to mean the type of farm that we all want or have) and small scale organic farms are going to really have to voice their opinion on some serious issues that are rounding the corner. Find a way to make your voice heard because we are going to need it.

[J-L]

I can’t help but think that this is the problem with our nation. Not the cow farts, but the idiotic thinking back of this idea. Let’s put everyone out of business and make food too expensive to produce in this country while everyone still pollutes with their cars and coal powered lights, etc. Makes sense to me.
People have no sense. Can everyone not look at the dense population centers, under their blanket of smog, and not consider starting there? Come after the farmer/rancher instead. We will wind up importing all of our food someday. Brazil and other countries aren’t going to be affected by this, and that’s where your’e meat will be coming from, and possibly your produce. When we legislate ourselves out of food we will truly be in trouble. The fact that this idea can even be considered makes my heart ache for our country.
Coming after the farmer and rancher is plain nuts.
I know that a lot of folks on this forum may not think it will affect them and that may be true. But I can guarantee you if this passes it will put under a good many small ranches in my community, including yours truly. We are all barely hanging on this last few years and this could put us over the edge. I’ve said all I can say. I sincerely hope everyone here will make known to their Congressmen/women that this is an extremely bad idea.

[Theloggerswife]

This new “tax” would effect each and everyone of us. Those that could afford to keep the animals and pay the tax would just pass the expense on down the line.

I know with our small 30 head beef “hobby farm” we could not afford the tax. We keep the animals around to maintain the property, but to also sell a few in the fall, to off set the property taxes. Local/State taxes, fuel taxes, school taxes, income taxes….when is it enough? I thought we lived in the land of the free?

I guess I am jaded when it come to the EPA and regulations. We all need guidelines, but it seems that only the honesty follow them to begin with!!! If there is going to be a new tax….tax all the manure that comes out of the EPA’s office! Now that is a waste of our tax dollars.

[Rod]

Did you ever get the feeling that the idiots are in charge of the world and especially the EPA?

Anybody using one of the EPA designed and mandated gas cans yet. Must have been designed by an office bureaucrat living in a condo who never used one to even fill a lawn mower. It takes 10 minutes to put 5 gallons of Diesel into my Bobcat tank all the while holding the can at the right angle and at the same time pressing the spout down to release the air intake on the nozzle. Anouther good reason to use the horses.

[Robin]

Here is another article from the Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/enviornment/article5323615.ece
I can’t believe what I am reading these days. This article pertains to NO MORE BEEF IN BRITON, (the home of Roast Beef with Yorkshire Pudding).
Also, someone was on TV a few evenings ago stating that Australia should eat camels and kangaroos instead of beef due to the cattle emissions.
I never hear anyone from the media standing up for the farmers on these or other farm/ranch issues.
Where do these people think their food comes from, whether it be beef, other meat or produce/fruit, etc.? It’s a lot of physical work for little pay.

[OldKat]

@Rod 3985 wrote:

Did you ever get the feeling that the idiots are in charge of the world and especially the EPA?

Anybody using one of the EPA designed and mandated gas cans yet. Must have been designed by an office bureaucrat living in a condo who never used one to even fill a lawn mower. It takes 10 minutes to put 5 gallons of Diesel into my Bobcat tank all the while holding the can at the right angle and at the same time pressing the spout down to release the air intake on the nozzle. Anouther good reason to use the horses.

Anybody know what fajitas are? May not be popular in all parts of the country, but probably 25 years ago they caught on big-time down here. This is a Mexican dish of marinated beef skirt that has been tenderized and grilled. Served on a warm flour tortilla, with grilled onions, pico de gallo and possibly some guacamole … simply wonderful.

Why do I bring them up in this thread? Because of the way they are served … on a hot cast iron griddle, sizzling hot and producing a white cloud of “smoke”. Make sense? Well, probably 10 to 12 years ago the rocket scientists at the EPA were making a big push to force all restaurants that served fajitas to have “fajitas only” serving rooms separate from all other parts of the facility. Seems they were concerned about the health hazards of all that second hand smoke being inhaled by the patrons. I’ve been told that only after they started hearings on the subject did they learn that the “smoke” was actually “steam” from the grilled onions on the hot caste iron. Not sure if this is a true story, but it was widely reported at the time & I never saw anyone debunk it. Makes ‘ya kind of wonder…

[Gabe Ayers]

I think this is a farce or joke of some kind, not started by our posters, but others….. The entire idea is insanity maybe even beneath the government if that is actually possible. Some better computer folks than me report back that it simply isn’t true, but no telling what kind of electronic rumors are started everywhere….

So I am not thinking about this issue anymore – on to real problems like how we can make a living in the country working and keeping our animals, including the ones intended to be eaten….yum yum….

[Rod]

At the risk of being demonized I suggest some indepth research about the real cause of global warming. There are a lot of very respected scientists that believe it could it be sitting up in the sky beaming down on us daily, no more no less.

It would awful upsetting to millions of folks if the human effect on global warming turned out to be a well meaning but nevertheless political science especially if we take such drastic measures to counteract something that we are not significantly effecting in the first place.

Now I duck for cover.

[Joshua Kingsley]

Or even better woud be if the scientists found out it wasn’t the cows and livestock contributing to global warming, but the TAR on all those lovely city streets….. wouldn’t that burn some politicians backside to find out just how little the country contributes versus the Corvette and blacktop at his or her McMansion….
Just some ramblings from a vermont hill billy,

Josh

[Crabapple Farm]

@Rod 3993 wrote:

At the risk of being demonized I suggest some indepth research about the real cause of global warming. There are a lot of very respected scientists that believe it could it be sitting up in the sky beaming down on us daily, no more no less.

I see the status quo invested in the naysayers argument, and little entrenched money invested in promoting the notion of global warming, so the latter argument sways me more. but…
I heard an interesting radio speach by the former CEO of Shell oil (emphasis on the former). His take on global warming and carbon emissions was simple and elegant: why waste time on bickering over whether our pollution is changing the climate? We are spitting crap into the air, which we all breathe, and that’s obnoxious and we ought to cut it out. If as a bonus we stave off planet-wide catastrophe, cool. But first and foremost, we need to take responsibility for our emissions. As a society, we’re behaving like spoiled adolescents.
Note: this is a paraphrase, NOT a direct quote.
Unfortunately, the politicians and political appointees are looking for quick, politically expedient fixes to get reelected. Ones that, say, hurt an economically and demographically insignificant sector only (that’s us, folks), and not an electorally important one.
And no, in my experience it is safe to assume that they have absolutely no idea where their food comes from nor are they concerned about it. They have complete faith in the efficiency of the “global marketplace” and the laws of supply and demand (where there is wealth and demand, supply will appear).

-Tevis

[Rod]

I agree that follow the money is a clue to determine motivation in may cases but just as or more important and a sometimes less subtle motivator is ideology.
Much of the science in our culture today is filtered through human ideologies some of which are held with a fervor equivalent to religion and depending on what that ideology is the science will often reflect one side or the other. Thats one reason why scientists are often formed up into two or more camps, looking at the same data but seeing the result differently.
That’s human nature and we all understand that is part of our imperfection but we do the best we can. The problem as I see it however is to bet the farm on what so far is anything but hard fact. Remember science in history has been wrong as much as it’s been right. It’s my opinion we need to temper our responses until we are sure we are on the right track because what we disturb may not be able to be reconstructed.
I agree we need to be good stewards of our planet and that so far we haven’t been doing a good job at that but I also see a world with a very fragile human culture, lots of people to feed, economies to maintain, issues of health and social stability with the potential for anarchy and social breakdown when the balance of things are disturbed too greatly. Often what we do in one area affects many other areas of life which at times is called the law of unintended consequences.
Sometimes I wonder if some of the proposed responses (taxing cow gas as an example) are confusing the trees for the forest. The human dilemma has to be considered a major priority because we affect everything else by what we do.

[Author]

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