the issue. Controversy The tax was described by livestock farmers and other critics as a "flatulence tax" or "fart tax" (though these nicknames are misleading, since most ruminant methane production is a product of the burping of methane produced by bacteria in the first stomach (the rumen) rather than of flatulence), and the president of the Federated Farmers contended that the government was trying to make the livestock industry pay for the "largesse" of others. In contrast, those who endorse such taxes contend that the result is that if one consumes a larger amount of the products which increase healthcare costs (in a system where citizens share each other's medical costs) – or those whose habits damage the environment, or if one's animals require antibiotics constantly to ameliorate disease-prone conditions, antibiotics which breed super-bugs that may also attack humans – then one would merely be paying for their own largesse, and the costs to society that their habits cause (and the opposition argues that one should pay more, commensurately, as one does or consumes more of what harms others in his society) (see also Pigovian tax). See also Climate change in New Zealand Agriculture in New Zealand Livestock's Long Shadow – Environmental Issues and Options; Climate change and agriculture: livestock References External links Agricultural Emissions Research Funding – discussion document Department of Chemistry, University of Otago – "Methane – and lots of hot air" (a Kiwi Professor of Chemistry's Flatulence humour) Flatulence Climate change in New Zealand Taxation in New Zealand Agriculture in New Zealand Climate change and agriculture