New Zealand is proposing a tax on polluting gases emitted by the country’s 36 million cows and sheeps, msn reports.
The policy announced on Tuesday will be the first in the world to tax cow burps and flatulence, as well as sheep urine.
The move was immediately condemned by New Zealand’s influential agriculture sector.
Farmers warned it could damage the country’s food production, and the Farmers’ Federation, the industry’s main lobby group, said the plan would “rip the guts out of New Zealand’s small towns” and replace farms with trees.
Andrew Hoggard, chairman of the group, said that for more than two years farmers had been trying to work with the government on a plan to reduce emissions that would “allow farmers to keep farming”.
He said the proposed tax would cause farmers to sell their farms “so fast you won’t even hear the dogs barking in the back of the pick-up as they drive away”.
Opposition politicians argued that the plan would increase emissions globally as it would shift agriculture to other countries that are less efficient at producing food.
Photo: iStock by Getty Images/Gulliver Photos
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