Meat Tax Versus Sustainable Meat

Taxing items is not a new concept but taxing a food that on average is consumed at the 100kg mark annually per person is a big move to make. The meat tax consideration aims to echo the UK, raising revenue for the government and proposedly saving 220,000 lives a year.

Marco a senior researcher for the study said “If the health taxes were introduced, consumption of processed meat would decline by about two portions per week in high-income countries and by 16 per cent globally.” and in turn this would lower green house gasses.

Why is everyone jumping towards the idea of a meat tax as the only option? 4 out of 5 Australians believe its important to eat sustainably, does this mean the only option is to cut out meat by putting a tax on it? (OpenTable sustainability report 2017)

No, Individuals will always eat meat no matter the cost, the need lays within educating people on how much is too much and the enviromental as well as personal health implications.

There are also many other option that can be implemented to ensure sustainbility of the meat industry as well as the enviroment. Looking at Flinder + Co. in late 2018 the food service meat distribution company announced it had become completely carbon neutral.

Advocating for sustainbility and producing/distributing meat has never been considered to go hand in hand, the assumption has always been that extreme veganism is the driver of enviromental causes. Yet, with projects such as Flinders and Co. there is a shift towards producing/distributing meat in an enviromentally conscious way.

Similarly, seen by Grill’ds recent move to sell the Beyond Burger as apart of their whole menu for the day and continue to provide it as a separate menu in all shops. Shows a shift towards accepting both sides of the spectrum and educating people together on what they can do to help influence the enviromental and health agenda.

These moves plant the right ideas in peoples mind, starting to make them think about the importance of ablance yet when you slap a tax on any food product especially such a demanded one like meat it will just add to the issue instead of creating clarity for consumers.