Ben Williamson,
AlterNet.org
January 2018
Such an excise tax on meat would help cover the health and environmental costs that result from using animals for food. Like cigarettes, alcohol and gasoline, meat should be federally taxed to help pay for its health and environmental costs.
Photo Credit: fritz16/Shutterstock
A new analysis from the investor network Farm Animal Investment Risk and
Return (FAIRR) Initiative argues that meat is going down the same road as
tobacco, carbon emissions and sugar toward a "sin tax"—a levy intended to
reduce consumption of products that are harmful. Such an excise tax on meat
would help cover the health and environmental costs that result from using
animals for food.
Cigarettes, alcohol and gasoline are already federally taxed to help pay for
their hidden health or environmental costs. In 2014, Berkeley, California,
passed a soda tax, and it has been working. Researchers of the tax found
that just one year after the tax started, sales of sugar-sweetened drinks
fell by nearly 10 percent, while sales of water increased by about 16
percent.
But while meat consumption is a known health hazard, and meat production is
a leading source of environmental degradation, the meat industry has gotten
off easy.
Why Congress Should Support a Sin Tax on Meat
A 10-cent tax on every pound of chicken, turkey, pig, cow, fish and other
animal flesh sold in grocery stores and restaurants could help reduce
Americans' skyrocketing annual healthcare costs by encouraging people to eat
less meat.
According to the American Dietetic Association, vegetarians are less prone
to heart disease, diabetes and cancer than meat-eaters are and also less
likely to be obese.
The production of meat is also a leading cause of climate change, a looming
environmental disaster that threatens the U.S. with billions of dollars in
damages from rising sea levels, worsening storms and increased droughts.
By discouraging meat consumption, this tax could help prevent future climate
change and related natural disasters. Revenue from the tax could be used to
fund educational programs about the many benefits of reducing meat
consumption.
Here are three reasons why a meat tax is a good idea.
1. A meat tax is good for public health.
The U.S. spends more on health care than any other nation and is one of the
largest consumers of meat. Animal products are the only dietary sources of
cholesterol and are by far the largest sources of saturated fat in American
diets.
Numerous studies have linked the consumption of animal flesh to cancer. A
major Harvard study found that people who frequently eat chicken cooked
without the skin (supposedly the healthier way to prepare chicken) were 52
percent more likely to develop bladder cancer than people who don’t eat
chicken.
An analysis recently published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that, based
on 32 observational studies, meat-eaters have significantly higher blood
pressure than people who avoid meat.
It doesn’t make sense that the millions of meat-free Americans have to
help pick up the tab (through taxes and health insurance premiums) when
meat-eaters get sick. A tax on meat would make the tax system more
equitable—similar “sin” taxes already exist for alcohol and cigarettes.
2. A meat tax is good for the environment.
Scientists and world leaders increasingly agree that climate change is the
biggest challenge humanity faces, and the meat industry is one of the
world’s leading causes of it. As the Guardian reports, "Food production
causes a quarter of all the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving global
warming, largely from the raising of cattle and other livestock."
According to an Oxford University study, surcharges of 40 percent on beef
and 20 percent on milk would account for the damage their production causes
people via climate change.
"It is clear that if we don’t do something about the emissions from our food
system, we have no chance of limiting climate change below 2C, said lead
author Marco Springmann of the Oxford Martin Program on the Future of Food.
"But if you’d have to pay 40 percent more for your steak, you might choose
to have it once a week instead of twice."
The researchers concluded that increasing the price of beef by 40 percent
would lead to a 13 percent drop in consumption.
Consider the following:
Unless people dramatically reduce their consumption of animal products,
we won’t be able to make a meaningful dent in the climate crisis. A tax on
meat could quickly and dramatically decrease meat consumption and help save
the planet.
3. A meat tax is good for animals.
On today’s massive factory farms, animals are abused in horrible ways. Cows,
pigs, chickens, and turkeys are routinely mutilated without any painkillers
and confined to filthy cages, sheds, or feedlots for their entire lives.
Fish are crowded into massive, filthy tanks in which parasites run rampant.
In the poorly regulated slaughterhouses of the U.S., billions of animals
routinely have their throats cut while they’re still conscious, and millions
are scalded to death in tanks of hot water every year.
Animals are paying a terrible price to supply society with meat.
© Jo-Anne McArthur / We
Animals
© Animal rights activist Karolin
What will this proposal cost the average American?
A typical meat-eating family of four might pay only about $5 per month, and
a chunk of that would likely be absorbed by the largest meat-producing
companies. If the family members replaced some meat with healthy vegan
foods, they would likely save hundreds or thousands of dollars in medical
expenses over time as their health improved.
Of course, a vegetarian or vegan family would not have to pay the tax at
all.
Will farmers and ranchers lose their jobs?
Corporate animal factories have largely replaced family farms, and machines
have replaced many employees at these facilities. The jobs that remain are
extremely dangerous, and the workers who fill them (usually immigrants) are
often exploited and treated poorly.
Human Rights Watch conducted a major study of working conditions in the
industry and concluded:
“Meatpacking is the most dangerous factory job in America....Nearly every worker interviewed for this report bore physical signs of a serious injury suffered from working in a meat or poultry plant....Every country has its horrors, and this industry is one of the horrors in the United States.”
As Americans increasingly switch to plant-based diets, more jobs, with
safer working conditions, will be created to produce vegan foods. Several
prominent business leaders and entrepreneurs, like Bill Gates, Sir Richard
Branson and Sergey Brin, have invested in plant-based food companies and
clean meat food technology.
Is this proposal politically feasible?
Yes. Although the tobacco and alcohol lobbies have enormous political
influence, taxes on cigarettes and alcohol have increased. Now, it is time
to protect consumers and the environment from the negative impact of meat
production and consumption.
The Oxford researchers said that these taxes on meat and dairy would reduce
consumption, which would reduce greenhouse emissions, health issues and
animal suffering arising from consumption of these foods.
A tax on meat is a good idea whose time has come.
Ben Williamson is the Media Director for PETA.
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