A meat tax is a

tax A tax is a mandatory financial charge or levy imposed on an individual or legal entity by a governmental organization to support government spending and public expenditures collectively or to regulate and reduce negative externalities. Tax co ...

levied on

meat Meat is animal Tissue (biology), tissue, often muscle, that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted and farmed other animals for meat since prehistory. The Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of vertebrates, including chickens, sheep, ...

and/or other animal products to help cover the health and environmental costs that result from using animals for food. Livestock is known to significantly contribute to

global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

, and to negatively impact global

nitrogen cycle The nitrogen cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which nitrogen is converted into multiple chemical forms as it circulates among atmosphere, atmospheric, terrestrial ecosystem, terrestrial, and marine ecosystems. The conversion of nitrogen can ...

s and

biodiversity Biodiversity is the variability of life, life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and Phylogenetics, phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distribut ...

Nomenclature

The term meat tax can be used interchangeably with slaughter tax or carcass tax. The latter also highlights how the tax might be administered - including on the import of frozen carcasses. 'Slaughter tax' and 'carcass tax' are terms that are considered to make such a change in food taxation more popular with the general public.

Critics

Support

Chatham House The Royal Institute of International Affairs, also known as Chatham House, is a British think tank based in London, England. Its stated mission is "to help governments and societies build a sustainably secure, prosperous, and just world". It ...

and Glasgow University, in a 2015 report titled "Changing Climate, Changing Diets: Pathways to Lower Meat Consumption" called for a tax on red meat. 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 A carbon footprint (or greenhouse gas footprint) is a calculated value or index that makes it possible to compare the total amount of greenhouse gases that an activity, product, company or country Greenhouse gas emissions, adds to the atmospher ...

) such as meat could be a positive for both the planet and the health of U.K. consumers. Scientists William J Ripple et al. have suggested the pushing up of the price of meat through a tax or

emissions trading scheme Carbon emission trading (also called carbon market, emission trading scheme (ETS) or cap and trade) is a type of emissions trading scheme designed for carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases (GHGs). A form of carbon pricing, its purpose ...

. Marco Springmann, from the Oxford University's Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food also proposed a tax on meat and dairy. Besides environmental concerns, health and humanitarian concerns have also acted as impetus for some proponents of meat tax.

PETA People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA; ) is an American animal rights nonprofit organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. Founded in March 1980 by Newkirk and animal right ...

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. The ''Danish Council on Ethics'' has called for a tax on meat in Denmark. In 2017, the

meat industry The meat industry are the people and companies engaged in modern industrialized livestock agriculture for the production, packing, preservation and marketing of meat (in contrast to dairy products, wool, etc.). In economics, the meat industry is ...

's ''Farm Animal Investment & Return (FAIRR) Initiative'' reported that meat tax was becoming "increasingly probable". Swedish Environmental Protection Agency mentions a meat tax as an instrument to achieve a reduction in meat consumption

Opposition

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.

Implementation

In June 2024 Denmark, a major pork and dairy exporter, announced that it will introduce a tax on livestock carbon dioxide emissions from 2030, making it the first country to do so and hoping to inspire other countries to follow.

References