For over 20 years New Zealand’s farmers have been unfairly harangued and vilified for their animal’s ruminant methane emissions and a new farming group says it wants to set the record straight.

A recently established organization named “FARM”, which stands for Facts About Ruminant Methane, has been set up by concerned farmers and scientists to present the facts about ruminant methane to challenge unjustified, unscientific emissions reduction requirements imposed by the Government.

FARM says the politics is running away from commonsense and science with current climate policy based on flawed input data about ruminant methane’s impact.

The system of quantifying ruminant methane in terms of their CO2 equivalence is without scientific credibility. This system does not take into account the cyclic nature of ruminant methane emissions and they do not accumulate in the atmosphere in the same way CO2 does. As a consequence the system leads to perverse conclusions about the impact of ruminant methane emissions on global warming that permeate throughout Government climate policy.

FARM is calling for a complete dismantling of Government climate policy as it relates to ruminant methane and for a first principles approach is adopted by Government in developing honest climate policy as it relates to ruminant methane emissions.

Getting the numbers right about ruminant methane makes a major difference to the splits between sectors in terms of the national greenhouse gas inventory and therefore will have a significant effect on the Government’s climate policy settings.

FARM wants political parties to take the ruminant methane aspect of their climate policy more seriously and take the time to study the clear facts about ruminant methane..

This issue is of immense importance to NZ and needs to be treated with more honesty and integrity than it has been to date FARM spokesman Robin Grieve says.

FARM is seeking membership and donations.

Links to do so are on their website at www.farmemissions.co.nz

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