PETA Asks for Meat and Dairy ‘Sin Tax’ Following Proposed Bag Ban

Eco-Minded Rep. Smith Pushed to Put Check on Toxic Animal Agriculture

For Immediate Release:
June 26, 2019

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Upon hearing that Delaware Rep. Michael Smith has proposed a ban on paper bags to help curtail human impact on the environment, PETA has sent him a letter today praising him for his action and requesting that he take another step to protect the planet by introducing a statewide “sin tax” on meat and dairy, as animal agriculture is the second most serious cause of global warming.

In the letter, PETA points out that using land to raise animals instead of growing crops leads to the loss of ground water, top soil, and trees and results in the pollution of rivers and streams with untreated animal waste. The animal agriculture sector is the largest single contributor of greenhouse-gas emissions, and the United Nations has stated that a global shift toward vegan eating is vital if we are to combat the worst effects of climate change. Not only do these industries poison the planet, the consumption of meat and dairy “products” is also linked to high cholesterol, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, obesity, and strokes. Every person who goes vegan reduces his or her own risk of suffering from these health issues—and also saves the lives of nearly 200 animals each year.

“Every piece of meat and slice of dairy cheese not only adds to a cholesterol overload but also further harms our precious planet,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is calling on Representative Smith to take another daring step for the environment by taxing the meat and dairy industries’ unsustainable and unappetizing offerings.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—also encouraged Rep. Smith to offer incentives to farmers to boost production of food-grade soybeans and apples in order to offset any financial consequences of the proposed tax and to help pave the way for a mass movement away from animal agriculture.

PETA opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.