ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some tentative steps taken to mitigate greenhouse gases (GHGs) from livestock production and the potential implications of these actions on the social and environmental systems within which livestock production occurs. It is our contention that, given New Zealand's attempt to include agricultural emissions in its national GHG mitigation program, the county's meat and dairy sectors provide an exemplary case study for investigating the political ecology of livestock production in context of climate change. The chapter reviews the emergence and historical context of livestock production in New Zealand. Then it examines the attempt to regulate GHG emissions through the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and argue that both technical challenges inherent to GHG accounting in livestock production and political opposition impeded implementation of the ETS's coverage of livestock emissions. The political ecology of livestock production in GHG emissions must account for a broader set of actors than multi-national corporations and small-scale pastoralists, or states, economic elites and family farmers.
