The cabinet is investigating the options for a levy on meat. This announcement by Minister Henk Staghouwer (ChristenUnie) of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV) last Tuesday, seemed a surprise. But is the idea for a meat tax out of the blue or was this step to be expected?
A meat tax, a levy on meat, whatever it is called: a higher meat price is fraught in political The Hague and in the public debate. Bring on meat and you’re talking about people’s right to choose what they want to eat. Out a poll by Stand.nl (Radio 1) on Wednesday, three quarters of the more than 4,000 voters were against a meat tax.
There was also immediate criticism in the House of Representatives after Staghouwer’s announcement. “Completely detached from society”, according to Caroline van der Plas (BBB), “tax terror”, according to Geert Wilders (PVV). The parties of the governing parties VVD and CDA also expressed opposition: wrong means, wrong way: the groceries must remain affordable.
Still, Staghouwer’s plan cannot have come as a total surprise. His predecessor Carola Schouten, also from the ChristenUnie, already had Wageningen University conduct research into the pricing of meat. She talked about a ‘real price’ for meat, with the extra cost going to sustainable livestock farmers. It was up to the next cabinet, she wrote in July last year, to continue with this.
That summer showed once again how sensitive tackling meat consumption still is: animal welfare organization Wakker Dier revealed that a call to eat less meat had been withdrawn from a government climate campaign, because of the controversy this could arouse. However, a small shift could be deduced from the response of the ministries of LNV and Economic Affairs: they explained the deletion of that call from the fact that in 2019 climate change was “a lot further away from the perception of many people” than in 2021.
The fact that the tenor is gradually changing can also be seen among the right-wing parties in the coalition, the VVD and the CDA: within the VVD, the Liberal Green member network is increasingly listening to the pricing of environmental damage. Last year, members of the CDA introduced an amendment to include a meat tax in the election program. A majority voted against, but the amendment did show: sustainable sound is gaining traction.
It may have been too early last year to explicitly mention a meat tax in the coalition agreement – in contrast to a VAT reduction for fruit and vegetables and a sugar tax that were included in it. But the good listener – or the wishy-washy – could take tentative indications in that direction from the coalition agreement: “We are investigating how a consumer contribution to making agriculture more sustainable could be shaped”, wrote CU, D66, CDA and VVD.
In his evaluation of the food policy that Staghouwer sent to the House of Representatives this week, the minister was expressive. The aim is to increase the consumption of animal and vegetable proteins from a ratio of 60:40 now to 50:50 by 2030. This requires ‘soft and hard instruments’, ‘standards and pricing’. And more coherence with other measures and departments: a meat levy must go hand in hand with 0 percent VAT for fruit and vegetables and the sugar tax.
meat tax
Staghouwer does not use the word meat tax. That suggests a blunt VAT increase, the proceeds of which will go to the great heap in the treasury. He speaks of “a levy on meat” with “a return flow to the producing sector”. And with “attention to feasibility”.
Polls also show how important words are: Stand.nl voters are in fact a large majority against a ‘meat tax’. But when asked about a ‘tax on meat’, 53 percent of participants favored in a study by Kieskompas and the Free University† And ask the Dutch whether they want to pay a ‘fair price’ for meat, and then a large majority of VVD and CDA voters are in favour, according to consumer research commissioned by the TAPP coalitionan organization that promotes the inclusion of environmental, health and animal welfare costs in food prices.
The TAPP coalition, which has been lobbying for higher meat prices for years, expects the greatest benefit from a consumption tax, in which the excise duty is linked to the environmental costs per kilo of meat. On average, meat would then be about 40 percent more expensive become, but chicken rises in price less and beef more.
Staghouwer has now only announced an investigation. If he subsequently wants to introduce a levy on meat and seeks a majority in the House of Representatives for this, a lot will depend on the way in which that levy looks and is called. In any case, he is already insisting that sustainable and healthy food must be affordable and accessible for everyone.