A Tax on Red Meat? Oh No You Don’t.

I wouldn’t have even noticed this article from Peter Singer at the New York Daily News today had I not heard about it on both CNN and MSNBC first. (The frequently preachy Mika Brzezinski was going off on yet another tangent about how there should be a tax on red meat to offset the damage that diners are doing to themselves and the health care system. None of this seems to encourage her to want to tax her own regular diet of Absolut and Ambien, though.)

The author begins by attempting to draw some sort of parallel between taxes on cigarettes and soda to the need for taxing red meat.

But in all these moves against tobacco, transfats and sodas, we’ve been ignoring the cow in the room.

That’s right, cow. We don’t eat elephants. But the reasons for a tax on beef and other meats are stronger than those for discouraging consumption of cigarettes, transfats or sugary drinks.

We are then treated to a list of the various ills caused by beef which will be reduced or eliminated if only the nanny state will come in and tax the Purchase of Tasty Animals. (PETA) These include health hazards from consumption, cruelty to animals, water table contamination, reducing agricultural runoff and greenhouse gas emissions.

Of course, in reality, (or what little remains of it today) I don’t think you could find any real support in Congress for such a move. It would be a political poison pill. But then again, had you told me ten years ago that cities would be banning fois gras, I’d have laughed in your face. Even if we don’t see such a thing on a federal level, states such as New York and California could easily entertain such a notion.

Food staples have historically been something that the government is supposed to keep its paws off of when it comes to taxes. The basic ability to feed and cloth yourself should not be hampered by the long arm of the tax man. If this effort to turn us into a nation of tofu gobbling vegans gains enough traction to the point where one of the four basic food groups is looked upon as a poisonous plague, we will have crossed over the rainbow bridge indeed.

Tax my steak and you’ll have fired the first shot in a very uncivil ideological battle indeed.