Meat tax

A meat tax is a tax levied on meat and/or other animal products to help cover the health and environmental costs that result from using animals for food.

Opponents

Some opponents to meat taxation consider it regressive and authoritarian, or doubt some of the health and economic claims, or do not feel it is properly inclusive of total costs over the long term.[1][2]

Proponents

Chatham House and Glasgow University, in a 2015 report titled "Changing Climate, Changing Diets: Pathways to Lower Meat Consumption" called for a tax on red meat.[3][4][5][6]

Adam Briggs from the University of Oxford conducted a study that concluded that putting a carbon tax on "high emission" foods (i.e. foods which have a high carbon footprint) such as meat could be a positive for both the planet and the health of U.K. consumers.[3][7]

Scientists William J Ripple et al. have suggested the pushing up of the price of meat through a tax or emissions trading scheme.[8][9]

Marco Springmann, from the Oxford University's Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food also proposed a tax on meat and dairy.[10]

Besides environmental concerns, health[11] and humanitarian concerns[12] have also acted as impetus for some proponents of meat tax. PETA has been calling for a tax on meat citing the negative effects of meat consumption on human health, the contribution of meat industry to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, and the stressful and inhumane conditions under which animals are reared and slaughtered in factory farms.[13]

Ag-gag laws criminalizing the gathering of evidence on animal suffering in the meat industry are adopted to try to slow the growth of humanitarian concerns that could reduce demand for meat and increase support for meat taxes,[14] but they are being countered by a growing movement to install compulsory CCTV in slaughterhouses.[15][16][17][18]

The Danish Council on Ethics[19] has called for a tax on meat in Denmark.[20]

In 2017, the meat industry's Farm Animal Investment & Return (FAIRR) Initiative reported that meat tax was becoming "increasingly probable".[21]

Swedish Environmental Protection Agency mentions a meat tax as an instrument to achieve a reduction in meat consumption [22]

See also

References
  1. Bourne, Ryan (2018-11-12). "Against A Highly Regressive "Meat Tax"". Cato Institute. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  2. "A meat tax is a rotten, regressive idea". Washington Examiner. 2018-12-19. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  3. Heikkinen, Niina. "A Carbon Tax on Meat?". Scientificamerican.com. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  4. "Reducing meat consumption critical to achieving global climate goal". Chathamhouse.org. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  5. "It's Time to Put Meat on the Climate Negotiating Table". Chathamhouse.org. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  6. "Changing Climate, Changing Diets: Pathways to Lower Meat Consumption". Chathamhouse.org. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  7. Briggs, Adam D. M; Kehlbacher, Ariane; Tiffin, Richard; Scarborough, Peter (2016). "Simulating the impact on health of internalising the cost of carbon in food prices combined with a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages". BMC Public Health. 16: 107. doi:10.1186/s12889-016-2723-8. PMC 4738773. PMID 26837190.
  8. Vaughan, Adam (20 December 2013). "Tax meat to cut methane emissions, say scientists". Theguardian.com. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  9. Ripple, William J; Smith, Pete; Haberl, Helmut; Montzka, Stephen A; McAlpine, Clive; Boucher, Douglas H (2014). "Ruminants, climate change and climate policy". Nature Climate Change. 4 (1): 2–5. Bibcode:2014NatCC...4....2R. doi:10.1038/nclimate2081.
  10. Springmann, Marco; Mason-d'Croz, Daniel; Robinson, Sherman; Wiebe, Keith; Godfray, H. Charles J; Rayner, Mike; Scarborough, Peter (2016). "Mitigation potential and global health impacts from emissions pricing of food commodities". Nature Climate Change. 7 (1): 69–74. Bibcode:2017NatCC...7...69S. doi:10.1038/nclimate3155. Lay summary – The Guardian (November 6, 2017).
  11. Boutron-Ruault, Marie-Christine; Mesrine, Sylvie; Pierre, Fabrice (2017). "Meat Consumption and Health Outcomes". In Mariotti, François (ed.). Vegetarian and Plant-Based Diets in Health and Disease Prevention. pp. 197–214. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-803968-7.00012-5. ISBN 978-0-12-803968-7.
  12. Cordts, Anette; Nitzko, Sina; Spiller, Achim (2014). "Consumer Response to Negative Information on Meat Consumption in Germany" (PDF). International Food and Agribusiness Management Review. 17 (A): 83–106.
  13. "Tax Meat". Peta.org. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  14. Potter, Will (2017). "Ag-Gag Laws: Corporate Attempts to Keep Consumers in the Dark". Griffith Journal of Law & Human Dignity. 5 (1): 1–31.
  15. Smithers, Rebecca (11 August 2017). "All slaughterhouses in England to have compulsory CCTV". Theguardian.com. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  16. "Mandatory CCTV in all slaughterhouses under new animal welfare plans". Gov.uk. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  17. "France to install cameras in all abattoirs after animal slaughter scandals". Thelocal.fr. 13 January 2017. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  18. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-01-04. Retrieved 2018-01-03.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  19. "The Danish Council on Ethics". Etiskraad.dk. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  20. "Danish Proposal Calls For Tax On Meat To Fight Climate Change - CleanTechnica". Cleantechnica.com. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  21. "CLIMATE TAX ON MEAT BECOMING 'INCREASINGLY PROBABLE' - FAIRR". Fairr.org. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  22. https://www.naturvardsverket.se/Documents/publikationer6400/978-91-620-6795-3.pdf
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