Do you think meat should be taxed?

Question

Most americans already overly-consume meat and raising livestock is not good for the envorinment. Dont you think meat should be taxed so it will be more valued and to raise less livestock. I think it is a waste of resources that goes into producing so much meat so that typical american fast food places can make people overweight.

Answer 1

no i dont think it should because its a major nessecisty and its already expensive

Answer 2

In Houston, we don't pay taxes on groceries that are consumed.

Answer 3

We already have enough taxes in this world so I dont think so.

Answer 4

This is such a good question and topic that gets me thinking.

As far as meat goes,  Isn't there already a taxes on food in the supermarkets, (like Bohemian said) .?

***However I think that taxes should be spent on economic education.

***They shouldn't give the huge commercial meat industry subsidies .

***They should educate everyone in the schools about how cows meat destroys the environment and the health of the people. .

*** The FDA recommended meat allowance should go down to almost nothing.

***They should show the children alternatives to meat with a large vegetarian selection in the cafeterias.

***There should be a vegetarian  section for kids that feel like vomiting during lunch time because they have to eat their food surrounded by dead animals.

***They should help educate farmers how to farm without killing.

***Kids should learn not to throw away food or take food that they won't consume.

Here is a SHOCKING statistic.

"Americans throw away more than 25 percent of the food we prepare, about 96 billion pounds of food waste each year.

The nation spends about 1 billion dollars a year to dispose of food waste. In 2003, almost 12% of the total MSW generated in American households was food scraps and less than three percent was recovered.”

  If people want to eat meat, let them, but give them a chance at knowing about it first. However cows meat should be banned.

Answer 5

i think anything can be taxed. all things in the world must be selled just for the price of the producer. no body can earn with something what not belong his.

(sorry for my bad english)

Answer 6

Well that is all well and good, but then what would people eat in its place.  All the fertilizers and land stripping for growing crops is also not ideal for the environment either.  Over fishing the oceans, again not so great for the environment.  Taxing everything will not stop people from eating.

Answer 7

I see the issue as one of factory farms being the bad guys.  Grass feed meat is made by people who care, usually this is not used for fast food.  Trust me small farmer's pay more than their fair share of taxes.  My father's land taxes are almost $2k a year on 70 acres, regardless of harvest yield.

Answer 8

It already is because of the gasoline prices. They just add the cost to the product. But as they say, it's an elastic product, it is subject to supply and demand, or market forces, and you don't have to buy the meat.

Answer 9

There are many ethical objections one can have against slaughtering animals and eating them. Vegetarian lifestyles have been around for ages, just like animal rights activists have long and very publicly protested against animals being used in tests of new cosmetics in laboratoria.

Consumption of red meat from cattle, sheep, goats and other ruminants has long been linked to heart disease, colorectal cancer and further diseases.

The link between meat and obesity has only recently received much media attention, with a focus on the fat and sugar content of fast food.

Similarly, environmentalists have long protested against the loss of biodiversity, as rainforests are cleared to make room for cattle or for soy plantations to feed cattle, all to satisfy global demand for meat.

Now meat has also been linked to global warming in various ways. As the impact of global warming starts to bite, many crops are at risk, due to more extreme weather conditions such as floods, drouhts, storms, heavy rain and moisture. It takes a lot of fertile land to put meat on the table, land that could otherwise be used to grow crops top feed the poor and hungry. At the same time, energy suppliers are increasingly looking at using bio-mass as a replacement for fossil fuel, so food is increasingly competing with energy in agriculture.

Finally, animals like cows and pigs release huge amounts of methane gas, which is twenty times more potent than greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide. A recent study led by Anthony McMichael, professor at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University, Canberra, provides some figures. It points out that 22 per cent of the world's total greenhouse gases emissions come from agriculture, as much as industry and more than what transport emits. Production and transport of livestock and their feed accounts for nearly 80 per cent of these agricultural emissions, through release of gases such as nitro-oxide and carbon dioxide, but mainly in the form of methane. A cow can belch up to 300 pounds of methane per day. The study was published by the Lancet, at:

Before you try and find more details, note that the Lancet has an elaborate registration process demanding that you name your medical specialty and probably at some

point your blood type, so if you prefer to bypass such things, you can try BugMeNot, at:

In conclusion, a tax on the sale of meat therefore makes most sense. We could leave it up to politics to work out how high such a tax should be, but a flat 10% tax on all sales of meat looks like a good start. The tax could be higher the more methane was released, which would go hand in hand with compulsory disclosure on products of the amount of greenhouse gases that was needed to produce and ship them. Once we've got a good system in place that displays how many greenhouse gases were released in production, we could tax accordingly. There could be different tax rates, even a gliding scale proportional to the emissions. This would encourage research into different diets for cows or somehow replacing the methane-producing bacteria inside a cow's gut.

If the proceeds of such a tax merely used to help the poor pay rising prices for food, then little will be achieved for the environment. Instead, the proceeds of such a tax should be used to create communities without roads, where people can have vegetable gardens close to their homes. We should start building such communities without roads on university campuses, designing small houses for staff and students to live around shops and restaurants. Small houses need less heating and air-conditioning. If we leave out roads, garages and other car-parking spaces, they can be built closely together, so anyone can easily walk or bike their way around. That would be more healthy as well!

Anyway, it makes a lot of sense to turn vegetarian, or even better vegan. Even if you didn't have ethical problems with eating meat and if you lacked compassion for the poor and hungry, you still would help the environment by becoming a vegetarian and thus yourself!

Answer 10

People who eat enough protein have better brain development.  Meat is already expensive because of the cost of raising the animal, transporting, butchering, transporting, cutting into desired roasts, steaks, taking to grocers.  I'm sure there are taxes at every point of handling.

There are plenty of studies that show plants respond to music, to growing near their "siblings," and do better when their mother plant is alive.

Answer 11

It would probably solve more problems to stop subsidizing corn.

Answer 12

That does seem like a plausible solution to our livestock over production problem. It's their stool >=( and f**t. Haha. But the cow's can have more friends....

Honestly though, it would be interesting to see the outcome of a taxation on meat, personally, I'm a vegetarian, so really it wouldn't affect me too much =D.

Answer 13

no.if people like it people will eat it

Answer 14

The answer is education vs taxes.  I agree with you but the reason that livestock is raised is because it is profitable.  To promote that profit, you have been targeted by every advertiser to believe that you need excessive amounts of meat.  Through education and the long term affects of this diet, more people are making healthier diet choices, and you can hope to convert more this way.  Taxing meat will make it a luxury and something worth pursuing.

Answer 15

I really agree... meat is bad for everything... it sould encourage more people to go veggie.

Answer 16

If you don't like meat then don't eat it.maybe we need to TAX STUPID PEOPLE!How about 20% off the top .

Answer 17

First, I live in Idaho.  ALL grocery items are already taxed in this state, as they are in 14 other states in the U.S.A.

Second, I'm a small farmer (in Idaho).  I raise meat goats, and meat rabbits.

Meat goats, and meat rabbits produce much more meat, in less time, with less feed than cattle.  The manure of goats and rabbits also does not have the "toxic" quality that beef, pig, and chicken manure has.

If you ate nothing but rabbit meat, you would actually STARVE TO DEATH, because rabbit meat has virtually no fat.  It's call protien posioning.  

Goat meat has less fat than skinless breast of chicken (!!!).  

Goats can graze where crops possitively cannot be raised (as can cattle and sheep).

Now, please explain to this small farmer (me) why you think it is ok to force your views on others, and tax yet more small farmers who are raising their livestock in extremely environmentally sound ways out of business?  That will be the net result of taxing meat.  It will drive small farmers out of business, but NOT the "big boys" who raise their livestock in VERY environementally unfriendly ways.  It will also put the price of meat even farther out of the purchasing power of poor people.

By taxing meat, you will allow the "big boys" an even firmer stangle-hold on the market, and give the consumer even LESS choices of purchasing from small farmers who raise healthy animals, in healthy ways.

YOU choose to speak with your wallet (purchasing power) by not buying meat, and being a vegtitarian.

I choose to raise healthy meat animals, in healthy ways, and choose not to support big oil companies, since we use no chemical fertilizers, pesticides, ect on our farm.  Instead we use the manure produced by our healthy, earth friendly livestock to fertilize our fields.

Do YOU realize that YOU are supporting big oil, by being a vegitarian, and purchasing your food from the grocery store, instead of the small farmer?

How is what YOU are doing any better, or worse than someone who chooses to eat meat?  The average person, really has not a clue how many TONS of chemical (oil based) fertilizers are dumped onto crops to make them grow.  

Frankly, this day in age of modern farming, being a vegitarian is BAIRLY any better than the person who chooses to also consume commercially produced meat.

Monsanto, ConAgra, Cargil, Shell, Chevron, Exxon,  will all LOVE you, if you manage to get taxation on meat.  YOU will be their poster child golden boy.

How about if you put your efforts into supporting the small farmer instead?  You know...the people who grow food in healthy, and natural ways, and know ever square inch of their land.

YOU don't have to eat meat....but you might want to concider buying your fruits, vegtables and grains from a small farmer who DOES raise meat animals.  Then the farmer is using animal manure to fertilize the crops, instead of oil based chemicals.

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

P.S.  How many generations are YOU removed from agriculuture?  Most Americans are three generations removed from the farm....they don't have a clue what agriculture really involves anymore.  My husband is ZERO generations removed from agriculture.  His father use to farm with draft horses.  Their family has farmed as far back in an unbroken line as the family tree has been traced (back to the 1100's).

My Great Granparents farmed.  My Grandmother did not.  My mother grew up on the Great Grandparents farm.  So I'm about 1 1/2 generations removed from farming....of course I've returned the family to farming.

P.P.S. Note to BarbieFairyTopia7, you stated this, "Consumption of red meat from cattle, sheep, goats and other ruminants has long been linked to heart disease, colorectal cancer and further diseases."

Goat meat has actually NOT been linked to heart disease, cancers, and further diseases.  Indeed, goat meat is highly recommended by doctors for patients who have heart disease, cancers, lupis, diabetis, ect.  Goat meat is an EXTREMELY healthy meat.  Less fat than skinless breast of chicken, more iron than beef, very easy to digest, ect.

Goats do NOT put on marbling fat, or the fat the runs through muscle tissue, like cattle, sheep, and pigs do.  Goats store their fat internally.  If you butcher a goat, and take the hide off, you see meat/flesh, NOT fat.  You have to open the goat up, and remove the internal organs to see the fat.  A goat stores it fat along it's spine (inside the body cavity), and INSIDE its rib cage.  During the butchering process almost every bit of fat is removed, leaving behind only extremely healthy red meat.

Chicken is a healthy meat, because chickens store their fat under the skin.  Remove the skin, and you are left with virtually fat free meat.  With goats, the fat is inside the body cavity.  During butchering, and the removal of the organs, nearly every bit of fat can be easily removed from the goat.

Any goat carcass you see that has fat on the outside of its body, has been abnormally fed with grain.  White Americans think that every animal for butcher must be stuffed with grain to fatten it before slaughter.  The ethnic customers who actually buy the goats will complain bitterly about a goat if it has been fed grain, and has a fat lay on the outside of the body.  They feel they have been cheated.  Only the 4H & FFA children are taught to stuff goats with grain.  The real producers of goat meat are feeding them hay, and pasture.    This produces extremely healthy meat with no fat on the outside of the body, or through the meat.  Goats simply do not marble, no matter how much grain is stuffed into them.