In summary...

Proposition argued meat production presented four threats to the planet: it contributed to global warming, damaged the water supply, reduced bio-diversity and wasted grain. They went on to say that a European excise tax on meat was the ‘appropriate remedy’. We accepted the first three threats were real and the aim to correct them was desirable, but we disagreed that taxing meat consumption would solve the problem. We didn’t believe the fourth threat was genuine at all, so perhaps we can get this out of the way before summarising our objections to using taxation as an instrument to solve the others. Their chain of reasoning went as follows: ‘growing livestock wastes grain…’ ‘…if the grain that is used to grow pork, for an example, would be used to feed humans more humans would get fed…’ We were happy to concede the first point: that growing livestock is comparatively wasteful of grain, but we couldn’t see how, nor did Proposition ever establish, this argued for a European tax on meat consumption. As we put this in our rebuttal, the cause of people going hungry in the developing world isn’t a lack of capacity in the West. To make this point stick Proposition would need to show how making European farming less wasteful of grain (even if this was the outcome of their proposal) would assist the cause of those going without food elsewhere. They were not able to do so. This said, the main focus of the debate became the suitability or otherwise of an excise tax as a way of tackling the three genuine threats to the environment caused by meat production. Proposition advocated this approach on two grounds, to reduce demand and to raise revenue ‘some or all of which can be used to mitigate the harms caused by excessive meat production.’ Again, we felt the second purpose of the tax could be dismissed relatively easily. This is because at present farming in general and livestock farming in particular, benefits from enormous financial support from the EU. Props would maintain these subsidies and simultaneously tax the product they help subsidise. We saw this is as economic madness when the simple expedient of dispensing with them achieved everything Props desired in a way that was guaranteed to provide revenue in a much more timely fashion. This is the approach preferred by the UN, which cites the case of New Zealand where the simple act of removing these subsidies resulted in ‘what has become one of the most efficient and environmentally benign ruminant livestock industries!’ [their ref. p 277] Having dismissed Prop’s plan to raise revenue as economically flawed, it wasn't even clear, in our view, that Prop’s plan would raise money, or that its impact on consumption would be without serious negative consequences. This was the third area of contention to which we now turn. We believe that rather than simply stop eating meat altogether when faced with a price rise consumers would seek out cheaper cuts or sources of meat, a point Props conceded. Both actions have the potential to exacerbate the damage done to the environment by meat production. We have seen, for example, how the recession has led to a fall in demand of organically produced meat. And since the tax is indiscriminate, i.e. it does not favour farmers who employ these better environmental practices, it will simply add to this pressure on organic or otherwise more ethical farmers. Meanwhile those farmers who use every means at their disposal to lower costs, including "antibiotics, hormones... fertilizers and pesticides" will be rewarded for these bad practices. Another beneficiary of the Props plan will be farmers operating in parts of the world with a comparative economic advantage over the EU, such as Latin America. Props shrugged their shoulders at this prospect, saying simply that their meat is ‘already cheaper at the moment’ and there is nothing the EU can do about it. We found this attitude extraordinary in the context of their overall economic approach and the global context of the problem. The real battleground in the fight against climate change and to preserve biodiversity is the tropical rainforests, and Latin America is the continent where these precious cradles of life are most under threat from the encroachment of livestock farmers. Surely what tenuous grounds Props have for their attempt to reduce European demand for meat is dependent upon directing consumption away from meat produced in these vital habitats, not towards them? Their plan, will have the same impact on costs 'regardless of where it was produced', this is precisely the problem. We seek to make the cost of meat reflect the environmental harm caused in its production. Thus meat produced on land reclaimed from tropical rain forests would in our plan be priced out of the market, while in theirs it becomes relatively more attractive to consume. What makes their defeatism even harder to understand is their preferred mechanism, excise tax, is particularly well-suited to combating this problem, by making imported meat more expensive. We ended our critique of Prop’s plan by pointing out that the glacial speed at which the EU could institute it was entirely out of step with their presentation of the crisis. We further doubted whether the EU had the level of support among its citizens or member states to pass it into law, and we bemoaned it as a distraction from the far more pressing problem of tackling the explosion of demand in the developing world and its likely devastating impact on tropical habitats. Throughout our critique we were able to show that far more effective means were available to the EU to combat the threats Props identified, that did not suffer from the critical deficiencies of Props’ plan. We based this on the UN’s own analysis that the key to reducing livestock’s long shadow was resource efficiency. And that the most effective way to achieve this was by ensuring inputs and externalities were priced realistically and subsidies removed. Between them these three measures would ensure the price of meat reflected the true environmental cost of its production, wherever it took place, elegantly aligning the interests of consumers and the environment in a manner proposition's plan so singularly, and disastrously, fails to do.