NYU And Georgetown: The Case For Meat Taxes

Dale Jamieson (NYU; Google Scholar), Emma Dietz (NYU) & Katrina M. Wyman (NYU), Designing a "Made in America" Meat Tax, 32  N.Y.U. Envtl. L.J. 157 (2024): 

Agriculture is the fourth largest source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the United States, and agriculture is the largest national source of methane emissions in particular. Yet regulators have paid far less attention to emissions from agriculture than from transportation and electricity, the top two sources of GHG emissions nationally. This Article seeks to put the idea of a meat tax on the agenda of scholars and climate policymakers as a tool for reducing GHG emissions from agriculture. 

Drawing on scholarship and policy proposals from other jurisdictions, where discussions of taxing meat are further advanced, this Article identifies key issues that would need to be addressed to design a meat tax that could be implemented in the United States. It also recommends an iterative modelling process to devise concrete proposals for an equitable meat tax that would reduce agricultural GHG emissions. A meat tax could be one tool in a basket of policy measures designed to reduce emissions from agriculture. In addition, reducing human consumption of meat would have the ancillary benefits of improving human health and animal welfare, as well as the environment.

Reuben Ilan Siegman (J.D. 2023, Georgetown), Note, Beefing up Our Tax Policy: Why Local Governments Should Tax Red and Processed Meat, 35 Geo. Env't L. Rev. 417 (2023)

Recently, there has been a movement to reduce the total consumption of meat Americans eat. These efforts often focus on the impact red meat has on climate change. This paper takes a closer look at the impact both red and processed meat have on the environment; human health; justice and equity issues; and animal welfare. Looking at red and processed meat’s effects, it suggests implementing a local tax on red and processed meat by comparing such a tax to the movement to tax sugar-sweetened beverages. Based on that movement, the paper looks at obstacles that advocates for a meat tax are likely to face and how they can be successful.

Editor's Note:  If you would like to receive a daily email with links to tax posts on TaxProf Blog, email me here.