Leftist Calls For A ‘Meat Tax’ Reach Fever Pitch

As President Joe Biden signs the largest climate package in American history, some leftist’s are bothered by policymakers’ hesitance to create a tax on meat.

Democratic lawmakers have long claimed that excrement produced by livestock and poultry farming — “farting cows,” as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) once put it — have an outsized impact on global temperatures. Discussion about crafting new disincentives for meat consumption resurfaced as the Inflation Reduction Act advanced through Congress after months of gridlock.

Vox reporter Kenny Torrella, for instance, noted that the Inflation Reduction Act devotes 5% of its funds toward “changing farming practices” while entirely ignoring meat and dairy production — the sector’s “biggest climate culprit.”

“Even though the money to cut emissions from agriculture is misplaced, the strategy — hand out money to do the right thing rather than penalize polluters for doing the wrong thing — is politically smart, and in keeping with the bill’s carrot rather than stick approach to energy,” Torrella wrote. “Just like the environmental movement had for decades, the effort to shift our meat-centric food system to a more plant-based one has historically focused on the stick approach: suing farms for pollution, banning the cage confinement of hens and pigs, and even floating the concept of a tax on meat consumption.” – READ MORE