Meat could be a target for higher taxes given criticism of the industry’s role in climate change, deforestation and animal cruelty, according to a report by Fitch Solutions Macro Research.
In Germany, some politicians have proposed raising the sales tax on meat products to fund better livestock living conditions. A poll for the Funke media group showed a majority of Germans, or 56.4{85424e366b324f7465dc80d56c21055464082cc00b76c51558805a981c8fcd63}, backed the measure, with more than a third calling it “very positive” and some 82{85424e366b324f7465dc80d56c21055464082cc00b76c51558805a981c8fcd63} of voters for the environmentalist Greens in favour. Similar proposals have been introduced in Denmark and Sweden since 2016, Fitch Solutions said.
Goldsmiths, University of London, announced that it’ll stop selling beef on campus as part of a push to combat climate change. The decision was met with opposition from the U.K.’s National Farmers Union, which said it was “overly simplistic’’ to single out one food product as a response to global warming.
The idea is still its infancy and faces a lot of opposition from farming groups, but it’s emerging as a trend in Western Europe, said the research group. If taxes gain traction, it could encourage more people to switch to poultry or plant-based protein and help drive the popularity of meat substitutes.