My cow is a stranded asset

A 'stranded asset' in the Azores.   Remote and peripheral areas may find a shift in diets particularly challenging.

As consumers shift to plant based diets for a variety of reasons, livestock are likely to become 'stranded assets', something that has implications for the decisions made by farmers and also public policy.  Professor Alan Matthews reviews an important contribution to this debate: https://capreform.eu/dealing-with-stranded-assets-in-the-green-transition/

In particular, there are implications for the green transition.  Matthews comments: 'Obviously, eliminating subsidies that might encourage farmers to invest in assets that could become potentially stranded should be a first priority. High stranded asset exposure, especially in bovine, pig meat and dairy systems, may delay EU dietary and climate action by increasing political resistance or financial vulnerability among producers. The paper argues for targeted policy support to farmers who want to adjust their farm businesses and possibly compensation for those who are unable to adjust.'

Call for tax on livestock emissions

Methane is a particularly powerful greenhouse gas and recent research suggests that it may have 33 times the effect of carbon dioxide when its interaction with airborne particles is taken into account. It is also very persistent in the atmosphere.

Calls for a tax on livestock emissions have been discussed half seriously in the European Commission, but now it has been advocate by the United Nations: Flatulence

What is evident more generally is that agriculture and the food chain has to be fully incorporated in attempts to mitigate and adapt to climate change. However, the farm lobby has been a powerful opponent of the cap-and-trade bill in the US.