My Beef with Professor Singer
Shall we start with a 50 percent tax on the retail value of beef? That’s the suggestion of Princeton University professor and author Peter Singer in today’s New York Daily News.
Why tax red meat?
| "First, eating red meat is likely to kill you. Large studies have shown that the daily consumption of red meat increases the risk that you will die prematurely of heart disease or bowel cancer. This is now beyond serious scientific dispute. When the beef industry tries to deny the evidence, it is just repeating what the tobacco industry did 30 years ago." |
It’s bad for the animals, too.
| "Second, we have laws that ban cruelty to animals. Unfortunately in the states in which most animals are raised for meat, the agribusiness lobby is so powerful that it has carved out exemptions to the usual laws against cruelty." |
What’s more, Singer argues, raising livestock ruins the environment in a number of ways, including through greenhouse gas emissions. A tax, in short, will decrease demand for red meat and humans therefore will be healthier, animals happier, and earth a safer place to live and breathe.
Indeed, medical science does suggest a link between red meat consumption and cancer. According to a 2006 study published in the National Journal of Cancer Research:
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"There is increasing epidemiological evidence implicating red meat as a risk factor for colorectal cancer, whereas white meat has not been associated with this cancer. Once of the main differences between red and white meat is the higher iron content in red meat." |
Environmental scientists can credibly demonstrate how livestock production, particularly the industrial kind, harms Mother Earth. So if one wants to avoid cancer (or fears E. coli O157:H7 ) or doesn’t like playing a role in earth’s demise or cringes at animal cruelty, one simply should not buy or consume red meat.
It’s that simple.
The problem, however, is the tax. Why should anyone–consumers or businesses–have to pay or charge an additional tariff to buy or sell one of life’s great pleasures?
Beef, by the way, is not like tobacco, which contains the addictive component nicotine. What’s more, tobacco smoke harms anyone who breathes it. Nor is red meat like sugary sodas, which offer little nutritional value.
Beef for better or worse is a fundamental part of our food culture. Professor Singer: Taxing its purchase is wrong.
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