A new paper has explored the environmental and economic impacts of a greenhouse gas tax on food products.
Food production is responsible for 25% of GHG emissions, yet the challenges of regulating food production have meant that agriculture is largely excluded from national GHG reduction plans. One viable option is to pass on the environmental costs of food production to the consumer through a GHG tax.
The authors used an LCA to quantify the emissions related to food production, and assumed an emissions price of $52 per metric ton of CO2 (which corresponds to the present value of future climate damages associated with each additional ton of CO2).
The authors founds that a tax on all food commodities would:
Avoid 146,000 deaths globally, due largely to changes in dietary risk;
Raise taxes that could then be used to subsidize vegetables and fruits, furthering the consumption of healthier, less environmentally problematic foods.
Click here to access the paper.