UK MP Caroline Lucas urges parliament to 'seriously consider' tax on meat

Source: The Guardian

Caroline Lucas urges parliament to 'seriously consider' tax on meat

Exclusive: Green MP will tell Oxford Farming Conference UK must prioritise sustainability

Fiona Harvey and Bibi van der Zee
Fri 4 Jan 2019 06.00 GMT

Parliament must “seriously consider” levying a tax on meat to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help to render the farming industry carbon neutral, the Green party MP, Caroline Lucas, is urging.

She will say on Friday that a meat tax in the UK could be offset for more sustainable meat producers, such as organic livestock farmers, through more money for sustainable agriculture schemes.

Lucas will tell the Oxford Farming Conference, an annual gathering of farmers from across the UK, that the country must prioritise “more humane and human-scale methods of livestock farming, together with support for farmers to transition to less livestock”.

“If the world’s diet doesn’t change, we simply can’t avoid the worst effects of climate change,” Lucas will say, in a stark warning timed to coincide with the push for people to adopt a vegan diet for a month, the “Veganuary” movement.

In a call likely to be controversial, she will say: “Better manure management and careful selection of feed can both help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but – at the risk of incurring the wrath of the energy secretary, who said recently that encouraging people to eat less meat would be the worst sort of nanny state ever – we need serious consideration of measures like a meat tax.”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/04/caroline-lucas-green-mp-meat-tax-oxford-farmers-conference-prioritise-sustainability