this sounds like an Onion article... i wish it were

[raggedyanndy]

Tax cows, hogs for passing gas, burping?
EPA proposes doing so due to methane's impact as a greenhouse gasBelching and gaseous cows and hogs could start costing them money if a federal proposal to charge fees for air-polluting animals becomes law

Comments

[caterfree10]

I like the idea behind it, because the methane that cows and other farm animals produce on a daily basis can be just as bad, if not worse, than carbon emissions. However, I think this is going in a bit of a roundabout way. I almost think that they should try going for some kind of reward system for having less cows rather than fine them for having too many.

That and I would totally go vegetarian because of the whole energy transfer thing, but I can't give up meat for anything. XD

[peebs1701]

Methane is definitely worse than carbon dioxide. Molecule for molecule methane has about 20x the warming effect.

[hallelujahlogic]

actually, animal agriculture is the single largest contributor to global warming.

this is great. like..beyond great. i hope very much that this ends up happening.

[ytterbius]

Can you post some data on this? For one thing, I can't help but think that it's more than just animal emissions... included in that contribution would be (I'd think) the whole process like fuel use, transport, power, etc.

[hallelujahlogic]

http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/a0701e/a0701e00.htm

maybe you're right.
i'm not sure though.

either way, factory farming is still catastrophically bad for the environment.

[bodyrock]

I'm all for this. 18% of global warming is caused by factory farms. They rank above cars, boats, planes and trains combined.

[xmetamorphose]

exactly.

[julieannie]

I just say that people raising cows should expect to lose farm subsidies at rates related to the amount of cows they have.

[pheara]

Meat should be more expensive... there's no reason to subsidize; make people face the environmental cost of what they consume.