Virendra Pandit

New Delhi: Thousands of New Zealand farmers hit the roads with their vehicles protesting against the world’s first environment protection tax they dubbed as ‘burp and fart’ tax, the media reported on Thursday.

Long convoys of tractors, 4x4s, and farmyard vehicles disrupted traffic in Wellington, Auckland, and other major hubs as the farmer took out rallies against the government’s attempt to tax greenhouse emissions from farm animals.

Farmers quit their fields and hit the streets in countrywide protests, demanding a rollback of the new tax levied by the center-left government.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern touted a “world first” levy on emissions of methane and nitrous oxide produced by the nation’s six million cows and 26 million sheep as a step to tackling climate change.

Protesting against this move, thousands of farmers gathered across New Zealand on Thursday brandishing signs saying the policy “stinks” and warning that the tax would make food more costly while putting their livelihoods at risk.

Animals produce methane and nitrous oxide as a by-product of munching on grass and feed.

Methane is less abundant than carbon dioxide and does not linger as long in the atmosphere, but is a much more potent warming agent.

This gas, methane, is responsible for roughly 30 percent of the global rise in temperatures despite being a fraction of the greenhouse gas mix.

PM Ardern argued they need the tax to reach climate targets and could even benefit farmers if they can charge more for climate-friendly meat.

“We are out talking to our farmers and food producers as to the best possible design,” she told reporters in Auckland.

Bryan McKenzie of protest organizers Groundswell NZ said the tax was “punitive” and “an existential threat to rural communities”.

While the government hopes the tax will reduce livestock emissions by 20 percent, he argued that less efficient foreign farmers will replace any reductions.

Urban supporters also joined the protest in some regions, with one sign in the southern city of Dunedin reading “Farming tax affects us all”.

In a joint statement, several mayors from New Zealand’s remote west coast regions said they “stand strongly in support” of the protest.

Environmentalists argue protesting farmers are stuck in the mud.

“This country’s rural and agricultural sector has been hard hit by floods, intense storms, and droughts this year alone,” said Emily Bailey of Climate Justice Taranaki.

“That cost millions in damages and loads of stress and heartbreak for those losing homes, sheds, stock, and fences… It’s only getting worse,” she said.

“Farmers can either adapt and rapidly bring down their emissions or they, and everyone else will suffer more.”