Sound Off: EPA Proposes Tax On Farmers For Smelly Cows And Hogs

Farmers say its a proposal that stinks. The Environmental Protection Agency has put forward an idea to tax farmers because their cows and hogs belch and have flatulence. The EPA says the animal gas amounts to air pollution- 100 tons of carbon emissions a year. The plan would charge farmers an annual fee for each dairy cow, cattle and hog. Some farmers say it would cost them $30-40,000 per year. What do you think? Should farmers be charged a tax for their cow and hogs’ flatulence? Email us:soundoff@old.kxly.com

No. Whoever proposed this idea should be fired – now!!! The government clearly has too much money if they’re running around thinking up ideas like this.  Abolish the income tax and cut this government down to rational size. -Dave

No way!  That is the most ridiculous, stupid idea. I can’t even begin to believe that our elected officials would consider something so outrageous. But again, our politicians our full of what they want to tax the ranchers for. -Ron

FIRST OF ALL, THE EPA SHOULD BE ELIMINATED.  TAXING THESE ANIMALS IS A JOKE. WHAT WILL HAPPEN IS THAT PEOPLE WILL GET OUT OF THE BUSINESS OF RAISING CATTLE AND THEN THESE JERKS WILL WHINE BECAUSE THERE IS NOTHING TO EAT? THESE PEOPLE SHOULD BE VERY CAREFUL BECAUSE THIS WILL ALL COME AROUND AND BITE THEM IN THE REAR. MARK MY WORDS. I HAVE SEEN A LOT OF THINGS BUT THIS IS RIDICULOUS. THE EPA SHOULD BE TAXED FOR THEIR OWN FLATULENCE. REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED IN RATHDRUM, IDAHO, A FEW YEARS AGO. -Yvonne

No……..that would get into a whole different pie. And could we afford the price increase on all our dairy and meat products?? It would probably increase the horse, dog and cat meat market. What about the chicken farmers, the buffalo and ostrich farmers.  -Christine(Spokane)

I somehow knew this was in the offing and it’s ridiculous to tax farmers for their gassy animals when the animals are just following their natural instincts. It would be a stupid punishment tax. -MJ

Another of Bush’s works. First try to get rid of the middle class, that his daddy didn’t get accomplished, and now when the income is lower (seeing how the middle class was funding the government), let’s tax the last of the working class more. Go out in the forests and tax the deer, elk wild boar and whatever else excretes. And this is just after bush used his pen to put into effect, that big business did not have to adhere to the pollution laws. Wake up America. –Michael

Unbelievable.  I don’t even know how to comment on this insane idea.  If they’re going to tax farmers this way, then prepare to pay more for food that gives you gas.  What will they do with the money?  The people behind this must be vegetarians.  With this law, you won’t have any meat to eat. -Bill

Wow I think the EPA must have a bunch of blondes working for them. To tax the gas of an animal is outlandish. Perhaps we should put the “Gas Tax” in place for people. Have they figured how many times a day a human passes gas and tax them for that? Here’s an idea to save money and our air quality….do away with the EPA department and put that money to good cause, such as building a filter system that purifies the air and re-circulates the air into the ozone! -Karen

If the EPA puts a tax on cows and hogs for being flatulent, won’t they pass gas anyway? -Bob

This reminds me of over 30 years ago in the Santa Clara Valley, California. The developers were able to get the county to propose a tax on every fruit tree the fruit farmers had on their orchards. The farmers weren’t able to make any money so were forced to sell their land to the same developers. So, in this case the fruit eating EPA members want all rest of us to be just like them, to they are trying to force the cattle, hog, etc. farmers out of business. Here is what I think. Put a tax on the flatulence that each EPA member generates, eating all the vegetables and fruit they eat and leave the rest of us alone. As for pollution, I wonder how much air pollution there was a couple of hundred years ago when thousands of bison roamed the country side defecating and fluctuating over thousands of square acres a day. -Jim(Newport)

This is the most ridiculous proposal I’ve heard in a long-long time. Maybe we should tax everybody who supports the maintenance of deer, elk, moose, bear, caribou and other mammalian wildlife. Still yet, let’s tax Santa Claus for his herd of reindeer. -Gary(Spokane)

I am certain that those are all off road cows so they are exempt from a gas tax. Seriously though if, pseudo-scientist policy makers were as creative about finding real ways of reducing carbon emissions as they are about increasing revenues, we could come up with a few good ideas. I just had to get a second response in on the “gas tax” on livestock. Taxing factories that emit carbon in their manufacturing process may be an incentive for businesses to change to a cleaner process by upgrading with technology. It is coercive but it will work. Consumers will pay the price in the end. Taxing livestock is just aimed at raising revenue. How do you upgrade a cow? This is just ridiculous. And by that I mean to ridicule the pseudo-scientist policy makers who ostensibly try to sell the idea as environmental policy when that is clearly not the reason. –Don(Spokane)

Why is the EPA allowed to impose taxes without congressional oversight in the first place? Will this proposed tax reduce the occurrence or impact of the supposed problem, or just collect more revenue in a manner that may not be in the best interest of the public?  -Bob

I agree with a gas tax. -Carla

Let’s start with politicians they put out more hot air than cows do. -Cis

Here we go again with tax, tax, tax. Who will pay for the emissions of gas from the Deer, Elk, & Moose? The government treats them with more protection than its taxpayers. -BJ

A gas tax on livestock. What’s next? A gas tax on out houses. Something is wrong people. –Gary

Sure tax all the farm animals not just milk cows, beef cattle and hogs but all farm animals as well including chickens, turkeys, lambs and sheep and while you are at it, place a gas tax on every human in America, it is just as ridiculous. -Cliff (Newport)

Gas tax on animals! There is more hot air coming out of Washington DC than all the cows in Texas!! Tax that!! Not!! It is just another way to screw the hard working AMERICAN CITIZENS! –Linda(Springdale)

O.K, this government has definitely lost its marbles. How ridiculous! Why stop with farm animals? There are large populations of other animals. I think a flatulence tax is in order for those cities with large human populations. How about a flatulence tax for those states with a large population of wild animals? Or better yet, a family reunion where a pot of beans is part of the fare. How much money did this stupid study cost the taxpayers? -Dan

There need to be some layoffs in the EPA when workers have nothing more responsible to do that think up such a ridiculous and irresponsible idea!  They are not living up to what people should expect from their positions. GET RID OF THEM and send them back to the cities where I assume they must have come from, there are plenty of politicians there who are gasbags. -Kay(Lamont)

Wow, what are they going to do, tax my husband for farting? Cause let me tell ya, they would make some serious money. -Bev

I am a dairy farmer near Spokane.  This ridiculous tax on animal flatulence might just be the last straw.  How much do you like your cheese, ice cream, yogurt and ice cream?  Will you be able to afford it, if there are no American dairy farmers left to produce those nutritious products?  –Judith(Deer Park)

Pooh on this!!!!! Just what farmers need, more crap to be taxed on. -Terry

With all the financial woes we are now facing, this is the best example of why we could do with LESS government!  If this is what the EPA is spending my hard earned taxes on, it’s time to make government smaller, get rid of the agency!  One fact they (EPA) fail to bring to peoples attention is, our swamp land in the USA produce 10 times the carbon emissions. I don’t see them pushing to cover our swamps! Where did our “Representative Republic” go?  -Roger(Twisp)

Who is the idiot that thought this idea up?  Why don’t we just start taxing bar owners for their patrons who burp and pass gas while out drinking, or tax the city because there are too many people in city limits and they all pass too much gas fumes? Will this nonsense ever end? -Chris(Colville)

Carbon regulation is coming to America, and soon.  Obama has said this repeatedly, and he is going to be the new president.  The findings of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have put to rest any serious scientific debate about the reality of human-caused global climate change.  Additionally, the USA is the only industrialized nation on earth that is not party to the Kyoto Protocol.  Believe that the USA will be party to its successor. Animal flatulence is often scoffed at as a real source of greenhouse gas emissions, mostly because it sounds funny and ridiculous.  But it is no joke.  According to the St. Petersburg Times, “Cattle flatulence creates more greenhouse gas than cars”  (citation: http://www.sptimes.com/2007/04/23/Worldandnation/Sorting_out_the_truth.shtml).   Taxation of animal flatulence is not the only carbon tax we will be looking at in the future.  People had best start getting used to things like this.  This is the new reality. -Jason

This tax is ridiculous. Just something else to shrink our domestic production and expand our demand on imports. We should tax the officials for all the hot air that they produced while coming up with this idea. -Markus(Spokane)

Just what we need. Another law to make my grocery bill increase. Could they include the men in my family in this category? They seem to think it’s funny to flagellate and draw attention to it. –Liz

All I have to say is someone needs to pull their head out of a cow [PIE] or pay 50.00 for a steak!    -Vern(Sagle)

My son and son-in-law both expell a lot of gas, does that mean they both will have to pay higher taxes?  This country needs to get REAL!!!!!!!!!!!!! -Greg(Spokane Valley)

Sounds like another crazy government bureaucracy trying to get more of our money to spend! Obama said NO NEW TAXES. The price for our beef & hog products will increase! Is the states & federal government going to pay the taxes on all the deer & elk & moose on state & federal land? The person that thought this one up should be DEMOTED or REPLACED!! -Cliff(Diamond Lake)

My question to the EPA is this:  Will having farmers pay $175 per calf really stops the ozone from being destroyed?  Or will it pad the pockets of the EPA?  Great solution for this problem:  it won’t help farmers, it will put them out of business, and meat prices will be so high not even environmentalists will be able to afford beef. -John & Betty

I’m sorry, but the global warming idiots have gone too far.  Taxing cow and pig flatulence?  What’s next, allowing the atheists to protest God in our State Capitol?  Oh, wait, the nuts in Seattle did allow that! –Ann(Spokane)

I do not agree with this tax at all.  So when the EPA going to start taxing us as people for our burping and passing gas???  Wow. -Jeannie(Coeur d’Alene)

We raise beef cattle. If we are taxed any amount for our cattle, we will raise what we eat and sell the rest. This is just another way to force us to go overseas for our food and other supplies. -Mart(Nezperce)

Has the EPA lost its collective mind…sure let tax the people who feed us? What will we do when we put all the farmers out of business?? While we’re at it let’s tax the EPA they seem to have their own brand of gas and it’s affecting their thought process! -Charles(Newport)

They should absolutely not be taxed! That would only continue to the raise the price of food! –Lauren

I think it’s a ridiculous and absurd suggestion. They’re just animals and they don’t have any control of when and if they fart much less any intelligence or knowledge of what a fart is. -Kelly(Coeur d’Alene)

Sounds to me like just another way our government wants to take more money from its citizen’s:  This time they want to tax f..ts.  What’s next?  Oh, please don’t tell me!  I don’t want to know! -Bruce(Priest River)

Who comes up with this stuff? And whatever happened to better out than in? Are they gonna start taxing MY flatulence?- -Lila (Elk)

What would the EPA do with that money? Spend it on more attorneys while the farmers go out of business? Then, US will no longer be self sufficient. EVERYTHING will be bought from other countries.  Heck, why support Americans?? Let’s just kill them off financially and literally! We all know about the lack of FDA standards on imported goods. -Barb(Hooper, WA)

Have we really gotten out of touch that much with where our food comes from? If cows and pigs can’t pass gas without the farmer being charged for the stink what’s next? Should we charge EPA for their gas? -Nancy(Chewelah)

It sounds like an episode of Monty Python! Watch out! I know a lot of people the EPA may want to tax for their excess emissions… That’s without a doubt THE most absurd thing I’ve ever heard. Worse yet, we the public, probably paid for the study that led to this bizarre proposal. You gotta love this government. -Steve

Good grief, how ridiculous can they be? Before long, humans will be taxed. Anyone planning to go to chili cookoffs should be afraid – really afraid. -Lynda(Chewelah)

Oh good grief! Why are the idiots in Washington allowing the bunny huggers to put all agriculture out of business in the US?? All this tax will succeed in doing is driving ranchers and farmers out of business and making beef (as well as pork, chicken and all other meat) unaffordable, which will force our entire country to become and bunch of half starved, really angry vegetarians! -Heather(Bonners Ferry)

No. That’s like moving next to an airport then complaining about the NOISE!!!!!!!!!!! And stop and think do you really want meat from overseas???? -Hook(South Spokane)

The EPA personnel have been smelling their own flagellations and it has rotted their brains, this is stupid! How are they going to monitor a cow or hog? Follow behind each and every animal with a monitor?   -Eric(Athol)

NO, NO, NO TAXES ON ANYTHING, THAT WILL BOOST THIS ECONOMY AND STRAIGHTEN IT ALL OUT. WHILE WERE AT IT NO REGULATIONS ON BUSINESSES TO BRING BACK THE JOBS. IF NOT LET IT ALL FALL DOWN AND WE WILL BEGIN AGAIN.  -John(Priest River)

The idea would probably put more family farmers out of business.  How about coming up with a way to capture some of that methane and putting it to use?? -Ann(Spokane)

What happens when something that is based upon bad science (global warming), takes hold in government bureaucracies? They use it as an excuse to impose yet another tax upon the people. Anyone who takes an objective look at the question will recognize immediately that that global warming is a hoax crisis created by NASA scientists who are looking for ways to keep the government largess flowing into their projects and studies. No more of these stupid, idiotic taxes! -Mike(Spokane)

LET’S get real!!!! I would say. The EPA is picking you know what out of pepper on this one. Start messing with the food supply and you could end up with a real can of worms. -Ken

Pretty soon they are going to figure out a way to put a meter on the cow. That way they can really tax the farmers. How about we put meters on all the people too? -Loren

How ludicrous! Why not charge Canada for the goose that bears that country’s name for all the poop they deposit everywhere…charge paper mills for the sulfurous stinky gasses they emit, charge car owners for the skunky smell their catalytic converts emit…I think we should charge skunks for spraying everytime they get frightened..As if the threat of a “smell fine” isn’t frightening enough! Leave our farmers alone..they are the backbone of our great country! –Susie

These people are running amuck. Are they nuts? We eat that meat and all it will do is make meat too expensive to buy.  We need to vote some people out of office to get this runaway CO2 stuff in hand although it is methane in the case of cow gas. -Nancy(Spokane)

You have got to be kidding?  Remember the Boston Tea Party?  If Americans do not stop this then we will have forever lost the very basis of what this Country is all about.  Politicians quickly forget who put them in office and just as quickly ignore us.  They have got to learn to conduct the governments business as we want it done because they are supposed to represent us not the tiny special interest groups. -Kurt(Post Falls)

That’s just silly. We need cows for milk and meat. For food. We should find other ways to reduce our carbon emissions by alternative fuels and hybrid vehicles. Cows aren’t the problem. Humans are. -Kimberly

I think the EPA should be more worried about carbon monoxide from autos and busses. I think taxing farmers is ridiculous for the animals that bring us food and dairy products. I would rather smell a farm with cattle and pigs over Auto and diesel smells. What’s next if a person has gas will they be charged a Fart Tax? -Brad(Kettle Falls)

The EPA has got to be kidding.  That will only be passed on to us in higher prices.  Then they can start on people with Dogs and Cats and after that People.  That would be taxing something that is “perfectly” normal.  Where do these people come from? -Roger(Lewiston)

ONLY IF every human is charged a similar fee for THEIR flatulence. Cows emit NATURAL GAS – it is not harmful to the environment in and of itself, or to any life, otherwise none of us would be here, since we all pass wind. -Jim(Thompson Falls)

Rubbish!  If the farmers have to pay, then meat prices will go up even higher than they are now.  And then what, a tax on people who eat too many burritos? -Lee & Heidi

GIVE ME A BREAK!!!!! What will our government think of next?? This just goes to show that are country is becoming a nation of idiots!!! -Tami(Spokane Valley)

What dimwitted, sicko bureaucrat came up with this moronic idea?!  Our farmers have enough to worry about just getting product to market without being harassed by some moron bureaucrat wanting to rip him off with some stupid, meaningless tax!  Bah! Humbug! –Harold(Pullman)

Farmers being punished for what comes naturally to animals isn’t fair. Humans do it too, along with every other animal on the planet. How is coming up with another stupid tax going to fix that? –Kristina

Not on your life should they tax for those animals’ farts!   Next they will be taxing taxpayers who pass gas.  Good grief!  What next? -Jeanne

The next thing they will want to do is Tax every human who breathes and Blows wind . What kind of nudnicks work for the EPA . -Fred

If we Tax the farmer out of business and kill all the cows and pigs then we can all eat grass. It’s to bad that all some people can think of is how can I make money!!! -Andy

That is absurd. Cattle and hogs smell. That is the nature of the beasts. If a person doesn’t want to smell them, don’t buy property next to a farm or dairy. If they want meat and milk, this is part of the process. We are not in L.A. or other large urban area. This is the wast after all. -Judy

I wonder how much methane gas humans put off? Are they going to start taxing us too? I think the proposal is ridiculous, and how would taxing farmers help with environment issues anyway? -Karen

The farmers should charge the Government for fertilizing the fields which turns the grass green which absorbs the carbon dioxide to make the oxygen that we all breathe. They also provide the milk (calcium) and the food (steaks & big mac’s) that we eat to sustain life. What about people that eat beans–are we going to tax them also. -John(Post Falls)

I was not aware the EPA had any authority to tax anyone for anything. It would ultimately be the consumer who would be taxed, YET AGAIN! Has the EPA gone mad or are they just blowing it out of their proverbial…well, you know what I mean! Flatulence tax…I’ve heard it all now. –Denise

Another example of bureaucracy gone mad. Bureaucrats suffering from Mad Cow disease. -John