Farmers Protest Flatulence Tax

This is a follow-up on a previous post (see Livestock Flatulence Tax) concerning the country of New Zealand imposing a tax on farmers who own animals that pass gas. The law was passed to comply with the provisions of the Kyoto Treaty with regards to greenhouse gas emissions.

According to Ray Lilley in a report for the Associated Press, New Zealand farmers are protesting the tax by mailing packages of sheep and cow manure to lawmakers. The New Zealand postal service said:

. . . about 20 reeking packages and envelopes had been sent to the nation's Parliament and that the protest - dubbed the "Raise a Stink" campaign - was endangering the health of postal workers.

New Zealand Post spokesman Ian Long said sending manure by the mail was a crime.

Even so, according to Adam Fricker, a newspaper editor, the farmers felt that "radical action" was needed.

"Farmers feel marginalized. They don't have the voice in Parliament they once had ... to really get traction on an issue when a ridiculous tax like this is being foisted on them," he said.

It's not clear whether the "Raise A Stink" campaign will ultimately produce results. Time will tell.

One thing that seems sure is the government's resolve to fleece the agricultural industry in order to fund research that produces results that justify the imposition of the flatulence tax. In other words, somebody dreamed there's a problem so let's impose a tax to study and verify there is a problem that's been dreamed. Perfect liberal wacko logic.

In support of the tax:

Agriculture Minister Jim Sutton said climate change from greenhouse gases "is the world's biggest environmental problem. We have to do something about it."

I disagree. The world's biggest environmental problem is having people like the Agriculture Minister walking around with the authority to raise taxes. And it's a sliding slope. It won't be long before another problem "materializes" and a tax will be imposed on human flatulence to fund the research necessary to prove the problem exists. And let us not forget the pet population. People and pets, add it up and we're talking a lot of gas. Somebody has to pay! Then there's the zoos and, hey, wild animals. Somebody must pick up the tab!

Whew!

One other thing that I've a problem with is the statement that sending manure in the mail is a crime. If that is true, the lawmakers have too much time for minutiae. It could, however, explain why they've got the time to figure new and creative ways to screw the public. If there are laws prohibiting the mailing of manure, they aren't enforced at all. All anybody has to do is open their mailbox two weeks before an election and guess what's there.

OK, it may not exactly be manure, but there's a bunch of it and the term normally applied is a synonym.