That's why meat consumption causes heart disease and cancer, our nation's two biggest killers.
Animal waste ravages the environment.
A typical pig farm generates raw waste equivalent to that of a city of 12,000 people. Raising animals for food uses more water than all other commercial and industrial sources combined, even as many cities impose mandatory water conservation restrictions and many of us turn off our taps and water our lawns only at night. The price of meat would skyrocket if the full health and ecological costs were included in the price tag. With a million people turning veggie every year, it no longer makes sense to spread the costs of meat-eating to all Americans. Taxing meat is not only appropriate, but imperative.