Something really stinks in Sacramento . . . and it’s not cow “emissions”

California’s inane battle against climate change has resulted in even more toxic legislation.

Last week, our legislature approved a bill targeting cow flatulence and manure, which lawmakers blame for releasing greenhouse gases.

Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) authored the bill, which passed shortly before the end of the legislative session. Lara agreed to a compromise that will give dairy farms more time to comply with the new regulations. Critics have expressed concerns the new regulations will result in an increase in the price of milk from California cows. Proponents of the bill say methane emissions have a huge influence on the climate. The legislation also calls for efforts that would significantly increase composting in order to eliminate the amount of food waste in landfills. Food waste releases methane when it breaks down.

The timeline will also allow more dairy farmers—and their cows—to move out-of-state as well.

…The World Ag Expo in Tulare, California features booths set up by no fewer than seven states–Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, and Nevada–in an attempt to lure wary California dairy farmers to a more advantageous business climate, according to NBC News. “Increasingly every year, there are more states showing up at the World Ag Expo to entice California dairies to move to their states, and they’re finding a receptive audience,” Western Milling market analyst and commodity manager Joel Karlin told NBC. “California has been losing cows to other states such as Idaho, Texas, and New Mexico–and now a lot of operators are looking at the Midwest more favorably since feed is cheaper, labor is cheaper, and water is more plentiful.”

You can always count on Sacramento to come up with regulations to help citizens . . . decide to move to another state in our union!

On the international level, biologists are clamoring for even more money to study the effects of climate change on plants and animals.

…An international group of biologists is calling for data collection on a global scale to improve forecasts of how climate change affects animals and plants. Accurate model predictions can greatly aid efforts to protect biodiversity from disturbances such as climate change and urban sprawl by helping scientists and decision-makers better understand, anticipate and respond to threats that imperil species and ecosystems. In a paper published in Science on Thursday (Sept. 8), biologists cite a critical lack of data on key biological mechanisms – such as how animals and plants spread during their lifetime and how they evolve in response to changes in the environment – as the main obstacle to improving models’ ability to forecast species’ response to climate change…

I can predict the effect of climate change legislation on California’s cows at no cost at all. They, like many other Californians, will be enjoying their new home in Texas!

[Featured image via Wikipedia]



