Herding Family Farms
The Environmental Protection Agency's proposal of a "Cow Tax" in order to regulate greenhouse gas emissions will hurt the American farm industry more then it will help the environment, according to American Farmers. Cows, cattle, and hogs release methane which contributes to climate change.
In a press release the EPA explains that the tax will :
"The tax for dairy cows could be $175 per cow, and $87.50 per head of beef cattle. The tax on hogs would upwards of $20 per hog. Any operation with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs would have to obtain permits.”
American Famers are worried that this tax won't really do much except cause them to either lose revenue and eventually their business. Bill Peck, co-owner of Welcome Stock Farm in Northumberland and stands to lose $175,000 per year from this tax, told The Saratoga News:
"This is almost crazy. Some years you try to have a profit margin of $175 per cow. Other years you lose $300. There wouldn't be any dairy farming left. I understand we're in a tight budget situation and governments are trying to come up with revenue sources.
We're getting lumped in together with cars and coal-fired power plants," Farm Bureau spokesman Peter Gregg said. "Greenhouse gases are coming from everywhere, all over the world - India, China. Other countries aren't doing something like this. We're getting taxed while our competitors aren't. It's insane."
- FILED UNDER: All Things Green, Al Gore, climate change, Cow Tax, EPA, Farmers, Global Warming, Greenhouse gases
- January 5, 2009
Anyway to fleece hard
Anyway to fleece hard working American achievers out of their hard earned money to give to the non-achieving ticks in society in the name of this "global warming" fraud. Keep pushing, lefties, hard working Americans will eventually push back.
It's the Radical Right
Hard working America is the middle class. The non-achieving ticks are those such as Bush and his Republican cronies on Wall Street. How can you bankrupt 3 companies and end with 30 million dollars? Ask Bush. He knows.
How can you make your stock options increase by 8,000%? Ask Cheney. He knows.
Why is America still sending 10 billion a month to a country that has tens of billions in oil revenue sitting in our banks? Because we got locked into Republican no-bid contracts that has moved Americas wealth from the middle class to the top 1%.
Republicans. Why do they hate this country so much?
By bebeholmes January 5, 2009 - 2:38pm
If you'd ever spent any time in the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, you might be tempted to think that this is a good idea. The stench from the multitude of dairy farms, the green tinge in the air....
But I think that we should instead concentrate on reducing industrial pollution and then see where things stand. I really don't give a rat's ass whether anyone believes in man's role on climate change or not. I just want to clean up our environment....the air we breathe, the water we drink, stop dumping toxins into our environment!
Cows aren't the only problem
Cows aren't the only problem in the San Joaquin Valley. The winds blow south, so that the dust from farming, the dust from all the dead farmland, the chemicals from farming, and the pollution from the cities all collect. The worst part of the Great Central Valley of California is Bakersfield. Fresno runs a close second. Then you go north of Sacramento and you get another pocket right at the northern end of the valley. Wherever you are however, it's hard to escape the pollution. Dairy farms stink to high heaven, but part of the problem is the inhumane way they treat the cattle. There is no reason to keep them mired in filth, but it's easier. Once you start treating animals like cogs in a machine rather than as living, breathing creatures capable of feeling pain, you start having farms that are bad for the environment. Pig farms are the worst of all.
By Michtou January 5, 2009 - 9:38pm
I completely agree with your entire post. Another factor is the sort of "venturi effect" caused by the San Franisco Bay area kind of funneling into the valley.
I don't recall whether or not there were any "California Happy Cows" ads run on TV when I was working in Bakersfield, but up here in Portland we get them. They must've been filming in Susanville, or somewhere with the same terrain. Maybe some spots on the northern coast. Hell, many places north of Sacramento, for that matter. I couldn't see how any living creature could be "happy" when they're knee-deep in mud, urine and feces.
They should tax people for
They should tax people for farting. I'll bet no one ever measured human methane emissions.
I like cows because they taste so good.
They are one ugly animal. They deserve to be eaten and I happily oblige. Make my cow medium rare.
For once we agree, deanrdd.
For once we agree, deanrdd. They're animals for goodness sake. They are put here for man's use. I liike my beef medium rare as well. As far as the San Juaqin Valley, I imagine the polution you are referring to is more because of the dust and smog. I live in Georgia nea several dairy farms and we don't seem to have the problem with the air turning green or whatever, so I'm calling bullshit on that. If it is the smell you are concerned with.....MOVE! Pretty simple, huh. And don't complain about farming with your mouth full.
They are put here for man's
Really, by whom? Where does it say that?
Given that bovines were walking this earth well before humans were, I don't see how they were put here for our ab(use).
-- Yes we DID!!!! --
By dtaylo75January 6, 2009 - 9:19am
Genesis 1:26 (New International Version)
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, [a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
How's that? Dead cow; yummy.
Dead cow; yummy So because
So because they are "yummy" we are supposed to eat them? I guess by that logic, since heroin feels good then we should all be using it?
So "rule over" means eat them? Just asking... A king rules over his people, does that justify canabilism?
-- Yes we DID!!!! --
Did what?
Rule over - suppose that depends upon one's intepretation.
So God put animals here for us to look at them and be vegetarians? Fish, chicken and beef are more nutritious then herion. There are examples in the Bible of eating meat and fish.
There is only one GOD; accept him or not; that's your choice.
I know it's hard to believe
I know it's hard to believe for you non(yeah right!)-believers to understand, but they were put here by GOD for us. If cows weren't supposed to be eaten then why do they taste so good? Come on, junior, you can come up with a better argument can't you? And what is this "Yes we DID" bullshit? What does that supposed to mean? LMAO.
I don't think we were made
I don't think we were made to eat duck eggs buried for several years until the yolk is black and the white is green. I don't think we were made to eat fish that is brined and then stored in rice for five years. I don't think we were made to eat various bugs. Yet people eat all these things and think they are delicious. I don't think we were made to eat dead animal carcasses. It's pretty disgusting too. We can get used to anything, and think it's delicious. That doesn't mean that God put them there for us to eat.
Yeah, but there's no such
Yeah, but there's no such thing as God. The bible was written by priests hundreds of years after the death of Christ. And again I say, heroin feels good, so we should all do it? Sounds like the same logic you used in "if they weren't supposed to be eater why do they tast so good". I'm just pointing out the holes in your (il)logic.
Yes we (Obama supporters) did get a decent candidate elected. Is that easier for you to digest?
-- Yes we DID!!!! --
By bebeholmesJanuary 6, 2009 - 8:11am
I live in Georgia nea several dairy farms and we don't seem to have the problem with the air turning green or whatever, so I'm calling bullshit on that.
That's because you've never been there. I'm sure that the dairy farms that you live nea(r) in Georgia weren't surrounded on 3 sides by mountains and foothills, therefore didn't have all the pollution build up that the lower San Joaquin Valley has. The cows probably live in pastureland with grass under their hooves, not mud, urine and feces up to their knees.
I drink milk. I eat meat. I'm not saying that there should be no dairy farms or cattle ranches. I was commenting on the disgusting conditions that those cows are living in. And since you've never been there, maybe you shouldn't be calling those who have seen it liars. And for the life of me, I don't have a clue why anyone would want to live in Bakersfield.
I think every state has an
I think every state has an armpit. The armpit of California is Bakersfield.
By Michtou January 6, 2009 - 9:52pm
Armpit? That part of the anatomy didn't come to mind last time I was there...though I remember when I was growing up in SoCal, that's what we called Bakersfield, too. I think that ours would be Boardman. There's an older coal-fired power plant there (Oregon's largest polluter), lots of PGE transmission lines converge there, lots of dust, also a few corporate dairy farms....