PETA demonstrators call for meat tax in Washington

[The Straight Story]

PETA demonstrators call for meat tax in Washington

PETA demonstrators in a pig and chicken costume call for a tax on meat and hold signs saying farming techniques lead to the growth of avian flu virus and the H1N1 virus (also known as the swine flu virus) near the IRS building and Capitol Hill in Washington on October 19, 2009. UPI/Roger L. Wollenberg



http://www.upi.com/

If they tax me by the pound can I retire?

[HopeHoops]

1. Eliminating grazing subsidies would be a fine first step.

There's no excuse for ranchers being allowed to let their herds trample public lands, especially when the so called "grazing fees" are trivial.

[ddeclue]

2. Can't we just have a tax on stupid animal costumes instead?

:argh:

[tonysam]

3. What a bunch of morons

They are worse than the religious fundamentalists.

[HamdenRice]

4. One of their few great ideas

Meat production has many more externalities (costs that are not included in the price of the product) than other forms of food production.

A meat tax would be one way of recapture those costs.

Not that this is remotely politically possible.

As someone wrote upthread, one way to accomplish this would be to eliminate subsidies, like low priced grazing on public land, or charging environmental fees for waste run off.

[Arkana]

5. If they did more shit like this less people would hate them.

Ridiculous animal costumes are tame compared to some of the things PETA has pulled. I disagree with the idea of a meat tax, but I'm at least relieved to see they're not dousing Congressmen in pig blood to make the point.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

6. PETA ROFLMAO

Not sure overall, if there's a downright dumber group of people on the planet...

[Seeking Serenity]

10. I say less dumb than just attention-starved. (n/t)

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

11. Impossible. They're Attention Starved AND Peta.

Huge double whammy.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

7. I gotta better idea

Tax foodstuffs by their energy costs and pass that tax on to giant corporations and politicians who support free trade deals.

For example how much energy does it take to get an avocado to Washington state in mid-December?

[Maru Kitteh]

9. That is a very, VERY good idea.

Brilliant even.

Not only would it dreastically improve nutrition in general, it would by necessity result in less energy intensive agriculture and reverse current unsustainable trends that are resulting in widespread ecological disaster.

Well done.

[Maru Kitteh]

8. Intensive farming of birds & pigs around the world does contribute to mutation of influenza virus

That's a fact.

It's also a fact that using cows for meat is one of the most fuel intensive, water intensive, land intensive and
grossly inefficient means of delivering nutrition to humans possible and it is scarring the earth.

The dead zone of the Gulf of Mexico
The destruction of South American rain forest
The loss of 95% of the native habitat of the great plains and many species there
The death of many coral reefs

All of these things and more have happened in no small part due to ubiquitous expansion of the Monsanto/ConAgra empires around the world.

Every some schlub eats a burger at a food joint, Monsanto feels all warm inside, and another tiny little piece of our amazing planet becomes dimmer, less diverse, less colorful and rich.

[flvegan]

12. No tears and flames yet?

Then a kick back to the top with you, PETA thread.