The taxing problem of cows, cars and climate change

The need to reduce the amount of gas emitted each day by cattle is more than simply a question of good farmyard etiquette; the greenhouse effect of methane emitted collectively by this country’s 10 million cows is equivalent to the CO2 produced by driving one third of a billion miles by car.

In response to the problem, researchers at Newcastle University have found that using curry spices in animal feed can reduce by up to 40 per cent the amount of methane they produce.

If we tax cars, then why not cattle?

The announcement that curry spices can reduce emissions form cattle prompted Dominic Lawson writing in the Independent, to questions why the majority of those campaigning against climate change do not argue that we all become vegetarians. Mr Lawson suspects that arguments about climate change are as much aimed at dismantling consumerism as they are about saving the planet, and that for this reason the green movement will not be happy about Newcastle University’s breakthrough of feeding ruminants with curry spices.

ETA comment

Of course, Dominic Lawson is quite correct when he spots the confusion around taxing cars, but not cattle. We at the Environmental Transport Association, the world’s only carbon-offset motoring organisation, have consistently told government to introduce a carbon tax that showed no bias in the source of the carbon – whether it be from heating homes, driving cars, making cement or keeping cows. Climate change does not care about the source of the climate changing gases and nor should we. Any significant source of climate change gas which can be independently measured and taxed in a cost effective manner should be included. We are then left to make our purchasing choices accordingly.

Where Dominic Lawson is incorrect is that, for the ETA at least, dealing with climate change is not seen as a costly or a hair-shirt experience if undertaken carefully. Dealing with climate charge is small beer compared to fixing the government’s deficit or correcting the impending pension provision problem.

Once cows become taxed for their climate change effects then farmers will quickly rear cows on the best possible diet and that might or might not include curry spices.