Council chairman Graham Evans said the Government’s rejection of the rural industry’s "phenomenal" proposal for He Waka Eke Noa was a "kick in the guts".
"We can feed 44 million people with what we do and we should be proud of that and tell everyone ."
Mr Evans said he backed Beef + Lamb chairman and Southern South Island farmer director Andrew Morrison "all the way".
In his director’s update, Mr Morrison urged farmers to work together to find a way through a "really, really difficult situation" rather than fight among themselves, which the Government was loving to watch.
"Let’s not get furious, let’s get curious when we come to these meetings."
He understood why farmers were feeling "hurt" by the situation when the agriculture sector accounted for 82% of New Zealand’s export revenue.
Most of the sheep and beef produced in New Zealand was exported, he said.
"The global demand for your protein has never been greater, [reflected] in the prices you are receiving."
The past decade for the sheep and beef sector had been at its most profitable in the past 60 years, he said.
Meat processors had never had such a "prolonged period of profitability".
"Let’s celebrate that."
He believed the biggest threat to rural communities was "blanket afforestation" for carbon offset, as opposed to any threat posed from He Waka Eke Noa.
When Mr Morrison said Beef + Lamb’s position on climate change was "informed by science", a farmer in the audience, Hamish Bielski, tittered.
Mr Morrison urged anyone who could "win the science debate" to make a submission.
Beef + Lamb worked collectively as part of 11 organisations in the agricultural sector to form its position on the available science, he said.
Mr Bielski said he believed most farmers were "opposed to the ideological taxing of methane".
Mr Evans said Mr Bielski could not make a statement for all farmers as he did not mind paying a tax on methane emissions from his farm.
Mr Bielski said the afforestation of sheep and beef farms would reduce stock numbers, so a tax on methane emissions was unnecessary.
When Mr Morrison said the sheep and beef sector had increased its emissions since 2017, Mr Bielski said the sector had reduced its emissions since 1990.
Mr Morrison said the target set by the Government was for a reduction in emissions below the 2017 levels.
"The clock started ticking in 2017," Mr Morrison said.
His statement incited laughter from many in the crowd of about 50 people.
Beef + Lamb chief executive Sam McIvor said a motivation to be part of He Waka Eke Noa was so the agriculture sector could "drive its own destiny".
He Waka Eke Noa came after both Labour and National indicated they would charge farmers a levy for agricultural emissions and make it part of the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme.
"We don’t think science supports those targets, but they are sitting in legislation and unless the law is changed they will remain."
Beef + Lamb did not agree with aspects of the Government’s latest proposal for He Waka Eke Noa, which disproportionately impacted sheep and beef farmers.
"We will fight it on your behalf," Mr McIvor said.
The fight would include for all farmers to have all of the sequestration on their farms recognised if they were charged for methane emissions.
Beef + Lamb also wanted any levy taken from farmers to be invested back in the sector, such as for research and development to reduce emissions, rather than it being put in a proposed "slush fund".
The agricultural sector should be in control of the re-investment of its levies, he said.
A Government proposal for the nitrous oxide price to be linked to the Emissions Trading Scheme was a concern, he said.
Beef + Lamb believed the nitrous oxide price would continue to rise and in time, cost sheep and beef farmers more than methane.
Nitrous oxide prices should be kept outside the scheme.
When Mr McIvor showed a graphic on the forecast costs per stock unit under different emission pricing models, Mr Bielski questioned what incentive farmers would have to reduce stock numbers and then walked out of the meeting, yelling on the way out about how He Waka Eke No would force families out of farming.
Mr Evans, yelling to Mr Bielski as he was walking out — "They are going to be forced out anyway — it is coming" — which sparked an uproar from the crowd.
Sheep and beef farmer Brent Mackie said fewer farmers across the world were producing food and people were starving.
"There is going to be the biggest global food shortage the world has ever seen if we let this happen ... we owe it to the rest of the world to fight this."
Mr Evans, Mr Morrison and Mr McIvor urged farmers to make a submission on the proposal before it closes on November 18.
