Corby Kummer: The T-Bone Tax - Why Meat Might Cost More Money

Products that are deemed harmful, like cigarettes and alcohol, come with an added excise tax - dubbed the 'sin tax' - when consumers purchase them. Now Germany, and several Nordic countries, think it's time to add a sin tax on meat. The hope is that higher prices will disincentivize consumers from buying meat, specifically beef, that contributes to the worsening of climate change. Americans eat an average of over 200 pounds of meat a year, and cows contribute 41% of livestock greenhouse gas emissions.

Food writer Corby Kummer joined Boston Public Radio to discuss the meat tax and alternatives to beef.

"There are many ways to get animal protein if you want animal protein, go ahead. But don't have it from the animals that are contributing so much more to greenhouse gases and methane emissions," he said. "In the U.S. there's lots of reasonably priced alternative protein. Let them eat those alternatives and save the climate."

The meat tax wouldn't hurt consumers' wallets too hard, Kummer said, but would be in place to stir people's conscience.

"This isn't going to make meat unaffordable, it's just going to say, 'Think again - this is terrible for the environment and for the future.'"

By Hannah Uebele