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IPFS News Link • Food

Tax meat until it's too expensive to eat, new UN report suggests

• https://iceagenow.ino, Robert

Meat should be taxed at the wholesale level to raise the price and deter consumption, says a new report from the UN's International Research Panel (IRP). This will (supposedly) save the environment and prevent global warming.

"I think it is extremely urgent," said Professor Maarten Hajer of Utrecht University in the Netherlands, lead author of the report. "All of the harmful effects on the environment and on health needs to be priced into food products."

Hajer and other members of the IRP assert that livestock creates 14.5 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

Sneak the tax up on people

Rather than taxing the meat at the retail level (in supermarkets and shops), Hajer recommended taxing it at the wholesale level. "We think it's better to price meats earlier in the chain, it's easier," said Hajer.


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