Farmers Taxed For Animal Flatulence?
Thursday, Jan 8, 2009 @09:53pm CST
 There are rumblings in the farming community... because of rumblings on the farm. Some farmers are raising a stink over the idea of a sort of 'gas tax'... likely not the gas most of us expect.
Tom Huff loves life on the farm. His family has farmed land near Fair Grove, Missouri since 1938. The President of the Greene County Farm Bureau and his wife Tammy are getting some serious indigestion over what some are calling the 'cow tax'. Livestock - as a natural by-product of simply living - emits methane gas in the form of belches, flatulence and manure. A regulation fee on methane emissions could mean a huge expense for farmers.
"We'd be forced to quit," says Tammy Huff. "It would be bad business."
The controversy started with the EPA's 'Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking' regarding regulated pollutants - which doesn't specifically mention livestock, but doesn't eliminate it either.
The Farm Bureau estimates that farmers could have to pay a fee of $20 per hog, $87.50 per head of beef cattle and $150 for each dairy cow.
"It would shut us down," Tammy Huff says. Tom Huff agrees. "Without an exemption for livestock we'd go out of business," he says. "We could only hope to make that much profit off our beef cattle."
The Farm Bureau estimates that farmers could have to pay a fee of $20 per hog, $87.50 per head of beef cattle, and $175 for each dairy cow. The Huffs figure it would cost them about $8700 a year. "Would you like an $8700 pay cut this year?" Tom asks.
EPA Spokesman Jonathan Shadlar says right now, the EPA is only discussing carbon dioxide, not methane. Besides, he says, there are bigger sources of methane.
"To say the we are going to do a cow tax would essentially be the same as saying we were going to cap Mt. Kilauea in Hawaii because it puts out too much carbon dioxide," Shradar says.
But farmers like the Huffs who fight huge expenses anyway, say this type of regulation will mean fewer farms, more foreign imports, and higher meat and dairy prices.
"People who don't understand farming because of this will see livestock as a problem," Tom says. "Farmers are a solution."
Until the whole issue is settled, he Huffs say they won't be afraid to sound the alarm on an issue they think is 'udderly' ridiculous.
The EPA says it doesn't have the authority to impose a tax, only congress does. And every lawmaker in Washington has farmers as constituents, so a tax would be a hard sell. Congressman Roy Blunt's office says he would not support it.
A 'fee' however, is a different story. EPA spokesman Jonathan Shradar says farmers don't need to worry just yet -- but that's little comfort for the farming community. |
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