The termmeat tax can be used interchangeably withslaughter tax orcarcass 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.
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.[5][6][7][8]
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 highcarbon footprint) such as meat could be a positive for both the planet and the health of U.K. consumers.[5][9]
Scientists William J Ripple et al. have suggested the pushing up of the price of meat through a tax oremissions trading scheme.[10][11]
Marco Springmann, from the Oxford University's Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food also proposed a tax on meat and dairy.[12]
Besides environmental concerns, health[13] and humanitarian concerns[14] have also acted as impetus for some proponents of meat tax.PETA has been calling for a tax on meat citing thenegative 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 infactory farms.[15]
TheDanish Council on Ethics[16] has called for a tax on meat in Denmark.[17]
In 2017, themeat industry'sFarm Animal Investment & Return (FAIRR) Initiative reported that meat tax was becoming "increasingly probable".[18]
Swedish Environmental Protection Agency mentions a meat tax as an instrument to achieve a reduction in meat consumption[19]
This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(January 2024)
Some opponents[who?] 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.[20][21]
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.[22]
^Franziska Funke; Linus Mattauch; Inge van den Bijgaart; H. Charles J. Godfray; Cameron Hepburn; David Klenert; Marco Springmann; Nicolas Treich (19 July 2022)."Toward Optimal Meat Pricing: Is It Time to Tax Meat Consumption?".Review of Environmental Economics and Policy.16 (2):219–240.doi:10.1086/721078.S2CID250721559.animal-based agriculture and feed crop production account for approximately 83 percent of agricultural land globally and are responsible for approximately 67 percent of deforestation (Poore and Nemecek 2018). This makes livestock farming the single largest driver of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, nutrient pollution, and ecosystem loss in the agricultural sector. A failure to mitigate GHG emissions from the food system, especially animal-based agriculture, could prevent the world from meeting the climate objective of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, as set forth in the Paris Climate Agreement, and complicate the path to limiting climate change to well below 2°C of warming (Clark et al. 2020).
^Funke, F.; Mattauch, L.; van den Bijgaart, I.; Godfray, C.; Hepburn, C.; Klenert, D.; Springmann, M.; Treich, N. (2022-01-10)."Is Meat Too Cheap? Towards Optimal Meat Taxation".INET Oxford. Retrieved2022-01-26.
^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.
^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.ISBN978-0-12-803968-7.