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EPA and the dinner table

December 6th, 2008 at 12:02 pm

I was doing my normal morning routine (surfing headlines) when I came across an article that REALLY caught my eye.

"Farmers target EPA report they say might tax cows"

It seems the EPA did a study on livestock "emissions" and found that someone should pay for all that pollution.

"The American Farm Bureau Federation said, based on federal agriculture department figures, it would require farms or ranches with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs to pay an annual fee of about $175 for each dairy cow, $87.50 per head of beef cattle and $20 for each hog."

"The executive vice president of the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, Ken Hamilton, estimated the fee would cost owners of a modest-sized cattle ranch $30,000 to $40,000 a year."

And how does one think the farmers will pay for this?

Just for the sake of argument let's examine the price-per-pound effect.

A "dressed" carcass of beef averages about 569lbs of useable meat. Divide $87.50 by 569 and you come up with 15.4 cents per pound. While this doesn't sound like an astronomical amount, you know as well as anyone $.15 isn't all we would be charged.

The Farmer would get his cut (which I feel he should) the carrier, the butcher, the packing company, and as always the Government. (I know I left a few out).

The numbers are even worse on a gallon of milk or pound of butter.

The article does state that:

"EPA officials insisted Friday that the lengthy, highly technical report, which mostly focuses on other sources of air pollution, does not include a proposal to tax livestock."

Ummm right. Can you say "smoke screen"?
This is only the first step to a new tax.

One thing I did find rather humorous in the article was a quote by a member of PETA:

"It makes perfect sense if you are looking for ways to cut down on meat consumption and recoup environmental losses," said Bruce Friedrich, a spokesman in Washington for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals."

*sigh* I guess i had better get used to over pesticided egg plant because I'm not going be able to even afford a hamburger from the $1.15 menu at mickey d's anymore.

If you wish to read the entire story, I read it on Yahoo News.

1 Responses to “EPA and the dinner table”

  1. cptacek Says:
    1228585305

    I heard about this yesterday on a farm radio station. There is no way that you can take $87.50 off the profitability of each cow we own each year and us make it. That would be $10,000 a year for us. No way. We would sell off. Everyone would sell off. We can't just charge an extra $87.50 when we sell at the sale barn to make up for it. The cows go into the ring and whatever market price is, that is what they sell for. We have no control over how much we charge when we sell them. It would directly take money off the bottom line, and we couldn't replace it.

    We have to have a vibrant farm economy in this country, and we cannot import all of our food. Could you imagine us importing food like we import oil? Especially from places like China, where they put melamine in dog food and baby formula, causing dogs and babies to die? Don't you think that would end up in our adult food too, let alone anything else they can stick in there to meet "requirements" and cut costs?

    Just to point out something for others who read this, it is the EPA that is recommending this, and Farm Bureau is fighting it.

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