by James Murphy, The New American:
In scenes eerily reminiscent of The Netherlands earlier this year, farmers in New Zealand hit the streets in pickup trucks, tractors, and other farm vehicles to protest against Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s proposal to place a tax on emissions from livestock in a bid to address the scourge of climate change.
Farm vehicles snarled streets in Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch, and other major population centers. Farmers in The Netherlands used similar tactics to protest that country’s draconian emissions targets.
The levy on animal emissions proposed by the Ardern government would be the first of its kind in the world.
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No other country in the world has yet developed a system for pricing and reducing agricultural emissions, so our farmers are set to benefit from being first movers,” Ardern said in announcing the plan. “The key to us is that what we do is workable, it’s pragmatic, it can be introduced in a timely way and will actually bring down our emissions.”
Farmers in New Zealand obviously don’t agree, calling the tax “punitive.” Bryan McKenzie of Groundswell NZ, the group which largely organized the protest, called the proposed tax “an existential threat to rural communities.”
In pictures: Farmers with convoys of tractors and farmyard vehicles hit streets of New Zealand’s cities to protest plans to tax greenhouse emissions from farm animals known as “burp and fart” tax pic.twitter.com/MTBaPVJThq
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“After years of faux consultation, the government has given up on all pretense of a fair and workable agricultural emissions policy,” McKenzie said.
On its website, the group lays out several reasons why the flatulence tax is a bad idea.
“The government must stop proposed emissions tax, and undo legislation putting agriculture into the ETS (Emissions Trading Scheme),” Groundswell NZ states.
“This emissions tax on food production will lead to food scarcity, higher food prices, and more land going into pine trees. This will lead to poor outcomes for rural communities and rural businesses — the Government acknowledge this in their document.”
While New Zealand’s government hopes that the new tax will help the country reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions by 20 percent, McKenzie and others claim it won’t help with global warming at all since any shortages caused by the tax would be made up by nations who are less concerned about emissions.
“Reductions will be replaced by less efficient foreign farmers,” McKenzie pointed out.
Some rural mayors in Western New Zealand came out in strong support of the farmers.
“We must protect our farming and rural communities. They are a vital contributor to our economy both regionally and nationally and are some of the most sustainable food producers in the world, having one of the lowest carbon footprints,” the mayors of Grey, Buller, and Westland, along with the West Coast Regional Council Chair Alan Birchfield, said in a statement.
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