There's a proposal to levy carbon taxes on meat and dairy products

T

tay

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May 20, 2012
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Surcharges of 40% on beef and 20% on milk would compensate for climate damage and deter people from consuming as much unhealthy food

Climate taxes on meat and milk would lead to huge and vital cuts in carbon emissions as well as saving half a million lives a year via healthier diets, according to the first global analysis of the issue.

The research, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, evaluated the tax required for each food type to compensate for the climate damage its production causes. Beef has a heavy footprint, due to the deforestation and methane emissions associated with cattle and the grains they are fed, and needed a 40% tax on average across the world.

“If people see any food price rise, they get angry, so you have to explain why you are doing it,” said Springmann, adding that a successful food tax policy could spend all the money it raised on ensuring people could afford healthier diets.


more

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...y-to-cut-emissions-and-save-lives-study-urges
 
Machjo

Machjo

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Oct 19, 2004
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It's a good idea in principle, but you need to compensate for it. For example, impose an animal tax on animal-husbandry businesses but exempt all other food producers from paying taxes. That would ensure that while the price of animal products and biproducts increases, the price of other food products drops to compensate.

You might even want to tax non-renewable-resource extraction companies too, but again, drop corporate taxes generally otherwise, same with the GST, HST, etc. Make it as revenue-neutral as possible, a tax shift more than a tax increase.

Taxes on alcohol, tobacco, gambling, and other such businesses should be hight too.

As for prostitution, I think that ought to be banned outright. But as long as selling sex is legal, it should be taxed high too, given the health-care costs it imposes on the system too.
 
C

Curious Cdn

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Feb 22, 2015
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Machjo said:
It's a good idea in principle, but you need to compensate for it. For example, impose an animal tax on animal-husbandry businesses but exempt all other food producers from paying taxes. That would ensure that while the price of animal products and biproducts increases, the price of other food products drops to compensate.

You might even want to tax non-renewable-resource extraction companies too, but again, drop corporate taxes generally otherwise, same with the GST, HST, etc. Make it as revenue-neutral as possible, a tax shift more than a tax increase.

Taxes on alcohol, tobacco, gambling, and other such businesses should be hight too.

As for prostitution, I think that ought to be banned outright. But as long as selling sex is legal, it should be taxed high too, given the health-care costs it imposes on the system too.
Click to expand...

Substitution? This is all about increasing revenues! There will be no "substitution"!
 
J

Johnnny

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Jun 8, 2007
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The only dairy I consume is cheese and whatever I make in a pasta like Alfredo or cream cheese.

Milk is terrible for you though and I haven't consumed dairy outside the sources I mentioned for close to 10 years. And my bones are excellent.

But it seems to the point that we are going to tax the porcelain in the kitchen sink at this rate.
 
Mowich

Mowich

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Dec 25, 2005
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tay said:
Surcharges of 40% on beef and 20% on milk would compensate for climate damage and deter people from consuming as much unhealthy food

Climate taxes on meat and milk would lead to huge and vital cuts in carbon emissions as well as saving half a million lives a year via healthier diets, according to the first global analysis of the issue.

The research, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, evaluated the tax required for each food type to compensate for the climate damage its production causes. Beef has a heavy footprint, due to the deforestation and methane emissions associated with cattle and the grains they are fed, and needed a 40% tax on average across the world.

“If people see any food price rise, they get angry, so you have to explain why you are doing it,” said Springmann, adding that a successful food tax policy could spend all the money it raised on ensuring people could afford healthier diets.


more

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...y-to-cut-emissions-and-save-lives-study-urges
Click to expand...

Consider the following (notes for stats are at the bottom of the page):


  • More than one third of the world’s grain harvest is used to feed livestock. 1
  • Breaking that down a little bit 2
    • Almost all rice is consumed by people
    • While corn is a staple food in many Latin American and Sub-Saharan countries, “worldwide, it is used largely as feed.”
    • Wheat is more evenly divided between food and feed and is a staple food in many regions such as the West, China and India.
  • The total cattle population for the world is approximately 1.3 billion occupying some 24% of the land of the planet 3
  • Some 70 to 80% of grain produced in the United States is fed to livestock 4
  • Half the water consumed in the U.S. is used to grow grain for cattle feed. 5
  • A gallon of gasoline is required to produce a pound of grain-fed beef. 6

Beef — Global Issues
 
Jinentonix

Jinentonix

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Sep 6, 2015
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I've cut way back on my beef consumption, but that's because between being grain fed and having less marbling now, it's flavourless.
 
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