Clark said at a news conference that claims in a report by the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization that livestock was responsible for more greenhouse gases than cars, planes and all other forms of transport was 'scarcely fair.'

And Charlie Pedersen, a dairy farmer and leader of the national Federated Farmers organization, said of the report, 'I suspect it was written by a vegan.'

'We are not talking about cattle; we are talking about food,' he told the New Zealand Herald. 'If you take that food off the market, you have to replace it with something else. You still have to eat.'

Clark said, 'To treat methane emissions from animals in the same way one treats, for example, carbon emissions from coal-fired generation is scarcely fair.'

She said it was rather obvious what can be done about carbon emissions from coal but not so obvious about what to do about methane emissions from animals. Both gases have been linked to global warming.

New Zealand has more than 9 million cattle and 40 million sheep, which account for about half its total greenhouse gas emissions - a higher percentage than any other country.

Source: Monsters and Critics.com