Since livestock generates about 20% of global methane emissions *, significantly contributing to the so-called greenhouse effect, and since in New Zealand there is a high density of cattle farms, in 2003 the local government tried to stem the phenomenon by proposing a tax on agricultural emissions, immediately renamed "flatulence tax" or tax on flatulence .
After the vibrant protests of farmers, the government was obliged to eliminate that odious tax, proposed again in 2008 also in Estonia.
