Sunday 3 February 2013
Saturday 2 February 2013
Should there be taxes on cows?
Many thanks to sustainable-tech:
Tax for a cow - that sounds like a genuine German invention, nevertheless this topic is at the moment widely discussed in many parts of the world. It is based on a study which gives evidence for the tremendous impact of agriculture and especially dairy farming and cows on the environment and the climate change. Agriculture is responsible for around 7 to 11 per cent of the total of greenhouse gas emissions. This mainly implies the production of methane, which is estimated to be 21 times more harmful for the environment than CO2. Another aspect in the center of this discussion is the emission of nitrous oxide which is produced during rice cultivation. Nitrous oxide is estimated 310 times more harmful to the climate than CO2.
Due to those facts the involvement of agriculture into emission trade is controversially discussed these days. Critics however utter objections, since the huge number of farmers and agriculturalists would result in an immense bureaucratic expense. Furthermore the tax would have to be implicitly charged on the consumer, which would harm farmers even more.
Diet for us? or for the cows?
Do we have to adopt a vegan lifestyle in the end? The answer is no. Concepts for reducing the emissions produced by cows are already developed: Cows should be fed with straw and hay, mixed with soy, wheat and corn. By this diet emissions could be reduced around 20 percent. Furthermore there are assumptions, that this diet could also lead to four to five times more milk produced by the cow.
