With tax season upon us, Bloomberg Businessweek is highlighting the “economic case for taxing meat” and the ongoing discussion of “sin taxes.”
Unlike taxes on wages earned, sin taxes aim to curb undesirable behavior, like smoking, consumption of alcohol, or industrial pollution. According to the article’s author Charles Kenny, “It’s time to add one more sin to the list of habits that should be taxed: excessive meat consumption.”
With Americans leading the charge, consuming more animals per capita than any other country, there’s never been a better time to consider the economic repercussions of our meat-heavy diet.
Not only is eating meat bad for animals and the environment, it’s proven hazardous to human health, with one in two Americans dying from heart disease, a brutal killer that is directly related to what’s on our plates.
“At the other end of the consumption scale, all that meat production also makes for more expensive staple foods for the world’s undernourished,” explains the article.
The article further states that “the livestock industry presents a growing global threat in its relationship with infectious disease. Domesticated animals have been the incubators of many of the world’s greatest killer diseases, from smallpox through measles to tuberculosis.”
Whether you’re concerned about environmental destruction, animal suffering on factory farms, antibiotic-resistant superbugs, your own health, or the world’s poor, your food choices hold tremendous power.
Visit ChooseVeg.com for hundreds of delicious recipes along with tips on adopting a vegetarian diet.