Flatulence!
Apr. 17th, 2006 03:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marcusmarcusrcOkay, I apologize for the sophomoric level of humor that led me to need to post this. But I get to be immature sometimes too!
Anyway, I had to look up flatulence for my thesis. Because New Zealand passed a "flatulence tax" back in 2003 as part of a methane abatement program, and one of my chapters is on methane abatement. Though really, cows, sheep, and other ruminants belch more methane than they fart, so it is a misnomer (pigs and other monogastric animals do fart it, though). Also, since it is a flat rate per cow (and a different flat rate per sheep), not taking into account diet or age or anything, it isn't really efficiently at taxing methane in a way that would encourage abatement. Though really, the tax was more designed to fund studies on how to reduce methane from livestock than to reduce methane in and of itself. Including things like injecting the animals with vaccine to kill off the worst of the methanogens in their intestine.
Well, that's my flatulence post for the day. Please move along, nothing to see here...
Anyway, I had to look up flatulence for my thesis. Because New Zealand passed a "flatulence tax" back in 2003 as part of a methane abatement program, and one of my chapters is on methane abatement. Though really, cows, sheep, and other ruminants belch more methane than they fart, so it is a misnomer (pigs and other monogastric animals do fart it, though). Also, since it is a flat rate per cow (and a different flat rate per sheep), not taking into account diet or age or anything, it isn't really efficiently at taxing methane in a way that would encourage abatement. Though really, the tax was more designed to fund studies on how to reduce methane from livestock than to reduce methane in and of itself. Including things like injecting the animals with vaccine to kill off the worst of the methanogens in their intestine.
Well, that's my flatulence post for the day. Please move along, nothing to see here...
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Date: 2006-04-17 02:47 pm (UTC)Also, I hate to think what the side effects (multiple-tummies ache) might be caused by that vaccine to kill of the methanogens . . .
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Date: 2006-04-17 05:58 pm (UTC)Re: tummy-aches: actually, I think the preliminary studies indicated that the livestock treated with the vaccine were stronger and healthier than their control compatriots. The vaccines targeted only 3 bacterial species, leaving many others to continue to be healthy internal flora. And perhaps having your gut bacteria busy making methane isn't actually good for you, there are better metabolic pathywas for them to use or something. Mind you, for the purposes of my thesis I don't need to know the nitty-gritty details, so I didn't read the sources in depth.