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‘Fart tax, what a joke’: New Zealand farmers protest levy on animal emissions

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Farmers across New Zealand have driven their tractors on motorways and into towns to protest government plans to tax the climate-heating gases that farm animals release when burping.

Lobby group Groundswell New Zealand helped organise more than 50 protests in towns and cities across the country.

New Zealand farmers protest in central Auckland on government plans to make them pay for greenhouse gas emissions, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022. New Zealand farmers drove their tractors to towns around New Zealand on Thursday in protest at a proposed new tax on cow burps and other farm greenhouse gas emissions. (Dean Purcell/New Zealand Herald via AP)
A tractor drives down the southern motorway in central Auckland during a protest on climate change proposals to make New Zealand farmers pay for greenhouse gas emissions, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022. New Zealand farmers drove their tractors to towns around New Zealand on Thursday in protest at a proposed new tax on cow burps and other farm greenhouse gas emissions. (Dean Purcell/New Zealand Herald via AP)

The rallies against the measure were smaller than expected, with the biggest involving a few dozen vehicles, but farmers came up with creative slogans to express their frustration.

New Zealand farmers protest in central Auckland on government plans to make them pay for greenhouse gas emissions, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022. New Zealand farmers drove their tractors to towns around New Zealand on Thursday in protest at a proposed new tax on cow burps and other farm greenhouse gas emissions. (Dean Purcell/New Zealand Herald via AP)
Tractors drive down the southern motorway in central Auckland during a protest on climate change proposals to make New Zealand farmers pay for greenhouse gas emissions, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022. New Zealand farmers drove their tractors to towns around New Zealand on Thursday in protest at a proposed new tax on cow burps and other farm greenhouse gas emissions. (Dean Purcell/New Zealand Herald via AP)

One placard read: “Without farmers you will be hungry, naked & sober”; and another: “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.”

The government has said the new levy, designed to curb climate breakdown, would be a world first and that farmers should be able to recover the cost by charging a premium for climate-friendly products.

A farm vehicle drives through central Wellington during a protest on climate change proposals to make New Zealand farmers pay for greenhouse gas emissions, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022. New Zealand farmers drove their tractors to towns around New Zealand on Thursday in protest at a proposed new tax on cow burps and other farm greenhouse gas emissions. (Nick James/New Zealand Herald via AP)

But the industry, which altogether farms 10 million beef and dairy cattle and 26 million sheep compared to New Zealand’s population of five million people, argues a tax could increase global greenhouse gas emissions by shifting farming to countries less efficient at making food.

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