SOURCE: summit.news
Photo by Jason Leung<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Environmental economists want to hike price of beef by 56 per cent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A group of environmental economists in Germany is demanding that huge taxes be imposed on meat products to fight climate change, with calls for beef to be 56 per cent more expensive.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Asserting that livestock is responsible for 13 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, researchers from TU Berlin\u2019s Chair of Sustainable Use of Natural Resources are demanding limitations on meat consumption in order to \u201cattain greenhouse gas neutrality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLivestock farming is a huge contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, soil and water pollution, and precious forests are being cleared for pastures and food crops,\u201d said the leader of the group, Professor Linus Mattauch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEvidence suggests the environmental impacts are so large that the world can\u2019t meet climate goals and keep vital ecosystems intact without reducing the consumption of meat \u2013 at least in Western high-income countries,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mattauch wants governments to \u201cstart thinking about also taxing meat to reduce its consumption,\u201d asserting that this is the \u201cmost efficient path to preventing further strain on our planet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAccording to the group\u2019s model calculations, the direct cost of livestock farming in relation to climate change is as high as $9.21 per kilogram of beef,\u201d reports ReMix News<\/a>. \u201cApplying this cost to the price of beef could result in beef products being as much as 56 percent more expensive. Similarly, poultry would cost 25 percent more, and lamb and pork would rise by 19 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such taxes will of course primarily impact the poor, who in many western countries are already suffering due to rampant food inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No doubt the solution to that will be amplifying efforts to encourage everyone to start eating bugs as an alternative and \u201csustainable\u201d source of protein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As we previously highlighted<\/a>, the World Economic Forum published two articles on its website which explored how people could be conditioned to get used to the idea of eating weeds, bugs and drinking sewage water in order to reduce CO2 emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In January last year, the EU officially approved<\/a> the sale of worms as food to be consumed by humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n