Tax Top of the Food Chain for Environmental Sustainability

[Guest guest]

TAX TOP OF THE FOOD CHAIN FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

FSnet, January 10, 2001

Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

 

http://www.islandpress.org/books/Detail.tpl?cart=306145167811448 & SKU=1-55963

 

THACA, N.Y. -- Applying the " polluter pays " principle, a Cornell University

ecologist and author suggests a way to improve the environmental

sustainability of agriculture: Levy taxes according to food-chain ranking so

that products with the worst environmental impact cost the most.

 

" We should internalize the costs of dietary preferences. If one chooses to

eat high-impact food, one should pay the full costs of such a choice, " says

David Pimentel, the professor of ecology and agricultural science who is a

co-editor and co-author of the newly published book Ecological Integrity:

Integrating Environment, Conservation, and Health (Island Press, 2000, ISBN

1-55963-807-9).

 

At the top of the ecologist's tax table (see information box on page 3) --

and highest in his ranking of foods that require the most resources to

produce while wreaking more environmental degradation -- are meats from

factory-farmed mammals, such as beef, pork and eggs. The same foods are the

least healthy when consumed in excess, Pimentel notes.

 

To be taxed the least are products at the bottom of humans' food chain --

foods that are more efficiently grown while causing less environmental impact

-- such as legumes, grains, vegetables, starch crops, fruits and nuts. People

eating plant-based diets generally consume fewer health-care resources, the

author maintains. Pimentel's beef with beef and other mammalian food products

at the top of the food chain centers on efficiencies of production and their

" true costs, " including long-term degradation of the environment.

 

Writing a chapter on agricultural sustainability with Robert Goodland, the

tropical ecologist and adviser to the World Bank, the Cornell professor

offers statistics to spoil the appetite of filet mignon fans:

 

o Seven pounds of cattle feed is required to produce a pound of beef,

compared with two pounds of fish feed for some aquaculture species.

 

o In the United States, the 104-million-strong cattle herd is the country's

largest user of grain. o Growing an acre of corn to feed cattle takes 535,000

gallons of water.

 

o Agricultural production consumes more fresh water than any other human

activity. Worldwide, about 70 percent of pumped fresh water is consumed (is

not recoverable) by agriculture. In the western United States,

the figure is about 85 percent.

 

o Worldwide, food crops are grown on 11 percent of the Earth's total fertile

land area.

 

o Another 24 percent of the land is used as pasture to graze livestock for

meat and milk products. Marginal land for pastures makes possible the

production of meat and milk products on land unsuitable for food

crops.

 

o Most cropland is threatened by at least one type of degradation (including

erosion, salinization and waterlogging of irrigated soils), and 10 million

hectares of productive land are severely degraded and abandoned each year.

Replacing agricultural land accounts for 60 percent of deforestation now

occurring worldwide.

 

The new book, with 23 co-authors and three co-editors, represents the

synthesis and findings of the Global Integrity Project. Since 1992, that

project has brought together leading scientists and thinkers from around the

world to examine the combined problems of threatened and unequal human

well-being, degradation of the ecosphere and unsustainable economies.

 

The contributors examine key elements of ecological integrity and consider

what happens when it is lost or compromised. For his part, Pimentel notes

that " a powerful trend to eat lower on the food chain " has started in many

developed nations. U.S. beef consumption, after peaking at 95 pounds per

person a year in 1976, has dropped to around 65 pounds today. Beef

consumption in Europe and the United Kingdom never reached those levels and

is now falling even faster than in the United States.

 

" But the countervailing trend is for people in developing nations to eat more

meat as they become richer, " Pimentel says, noting that China's pork

consumption jumped 14 percent in 1995 alone. Pimentel and Goodland called on

international aid agencies such as the World Bank to phase out investments in

intensive livestock production in Third World countries, " especially

grain-fed livestock, and leave it to the

private sector. " Such groups, they write, " should ensure that good economics

prevail, including accounting for full environmental and social costs. "

 

The authors would make exceptions in their tax plan for small-scale meat and

milk production, such as natural range-fed cattle, the family cow or pig and

scrap-fed chickens. But they know where the food chain tax collection should

focus for the greatest bureaucratic efficiency. In the United States, they

write, " beef sales are the single-largest revenue source within the whole

agriculture sector. Only four meatpackers in the United States hold 82

percent of the market, suggesting a low-cost place to tax. " Proposal to tax

foods by environmental sustainability and food-chain ranking

 

By Robert Goodland and David Pimentel from the book, Ecological Integrity:

Integrating Environment, Conservation, and Health

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Excellent!!! Another Mind for our Times out of Cornell... seems

to be a hot-bed of intelligence!

 

Deborah

 

 

TAX TOP OF THE FOOD CHAIN FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

FSnet, January 10, 2001

Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

 

http://www.islandpress.org/books/Detail.tpl?cart=306145167811448 &

SKU=1-55963

 

THACA, N.Y. -- Applying the " polluter pays " principle, a Cornell

University

ecologist and author suggests a way to improve the environmental

sustainability of agriculture: Levy taxes according to food-chain

ranking so

that products with the worst environmental impact cost the most.

 

" We should internalize the costs of dietary preferences. If one

chooses to

eat high-impact food, one should pay the full costs of such a

choice, " says

David Pimentel, the professor of ecology and agricultural science

who is a

co-editor and co-author of the newly published book Ecological

Integrity:

Integrating Environment, Conservation, and Health (Island Press,

2000, ISBN

1-55963-807-9).

 

At the top of the ecologist's tax table (see information box on

page 3) --

and highest in his ranking of foods that require the most

resources to

produce while wreaking more environmental degradation -- are

meats from

factory-farmed mammals, such as beef, pork and eggs. The same

foods are the

least healthy when consumed in excess, Pimentel notes.

 

To be taxed the least are products at the bottom of humans' food

chain --

foods that are more efficiently grown while causing less

environmental impact

-- such as legumes, grains, vegetables, starch crops, fruits and

nuts. People

eating plant-based diets generally consume fewer health-care

resources, the

author maintains. Pimentel's beef with beef and other mammalian

food products

at the top of the food chain centers on efficiencies of

production and their

" true costs, " including long-term degradation of the environment.

 

Writing a chapter on agricultural sustainability with Robert

Goodland, the

tropical ecologist and adviser to the World Bank, the Cornell

professor

offers statistics to spoil the appetite of filet mignon fans:

 

o Seven pounds of cattle feed is required to produce a pound of

beef,

compared with two pounds of fish feed for some aquaculture

species.

 

o In the United States, the 104-million-strong cattle herd is the

country's

largest user of grain. o Growing an acre of corn to feed cattle

takes 535,000

gallons of water.

 

o Agricultural production consumes more fresh water than any

other human

activity. Worldwide, about 70 percent of pumped fresh water is

consumed (is

not recoverable) by agriculture. In the western United States,

the figure is about 85 percent.

 

o Worldwide, food crops are grown on 11 percent of the Earth's

total fertile

land area.

 

o Another 24 percent of the land is used as pasture to graze

livestock for

meat and milk products. Marginal land for pastures makes possible

the

production of meat and milk products on land unsuitable for food

crops.

 

o Most cropland is threatened by at least one type of degradation

(including

erosion, salinization and waterlogging of irrigated soils), and

10 million

hectares of productive land are severely degraded and abandoned

each year.

Replacing agricultural land accounts for 60 percent of

deforestation now

occurring worldwide.

 

The new book, with 23 co-authors and three co-editors, represents

the

synthesis and findings of the Global Integrity Project. Since

1992, that

project has brought together leading scientists and thinkers from

around the

world to examine the combined problems of threatened and unequal

human

well-being, degradation of the ecosphere and unsustainable

economies.

 

The contributors examine key elements of ecological integrity and

consider

what happens when it is lost or compromised. For his part,

Pimentel notes

that " a powerful trend to eat lower on the food chain " has

started in many

developed nations. U.S. beef consumption, after peaking at 95

pounds per

person a year in 1976, has dropped to around 65 pounds today.

Beef

consumption in Europe and the United Kingdom never reached those

levels and

is now falling even faster than in the United States.

 

" But the countervailing trend is for people in developing nations

to eat more

meat as they become richer, " Pimentel says, noting that China's

pork

consumption jumped 14 percent in 1995 alone. Pimentel and

Goodland called on

international aid agencies such as the World Bank to phase out

investments in

intensive livestock production in Third World countries,

" especially

grain-fed livestock, and leave it to the

private sector. " Such groups, they write, " should ensure that

good economics

prevail, including accounting for full environmental and social

costs. "

 

The authors would make exceptions in their tax plan for

small-scale meat and

milk production, such as natural range-fed cattle, the family cow

or pig and

scrap-fed chickens. But they know where the food chain tax

collection should

focus for the greatest bureaucratic efficiency. In the United

States, they

write, " beef sales are the single-largest revenue source within

the whole

agriculture sector. Only four meatpackers in the United States

hold 82

percent of the market, suggesting a low-cost place to tax. "

Proposal to tax

foods by environmental sustainability and food-chain ranking

 

By Robert Goodland and David Pimentel from the book, Ecological

Integrity:

Integrating Environment, Conservation, and Health