Will there be an extra tax on meatballs and sausages to eat more healthily, or not?
Eating a lot of meat is not healthy. That is why the House of Representatives investigated the possibility of making meat more expensive, for example by imposing a so-called meat tax, an additional tax on meat. Higher price, therefore less consumption – actually just like with cigarettes and alcohol. ‘A culinary dictatorship,’ JA21 MP Eppink called the idea.
Agriculture Minister Staghouwer announced that he wants research to be conducted into such a meat tax, or another way of motivating people to eat less meat. The goal: by 2030, everyone will eat 50 percent plant-based proteins and 50 percent animal proteins, instead of 40/60 – the current distribution. That is a major change, says the minister. ‘If more people eat according to the Wheel of Five, with a good balance between the consumption of animal and plant-based proteins, this contributes both to sustainability and to health,’ he says.
Affordable groceries
That did not go down well everywhere. Groceries must remain affordable for everyone, says the VVD. They are opposed to a meat tax. The CDA does not support it either. Naturally, BBB was against it, as were JA21, PVV, SP and Denk. Even before the research, they all made it clear that they really do not want higher taxes on meatballs and pork belly. JA21 MP Eppink called the measure a march toward a ‘culinary dictatorship’. He believes the government should not decide what someone may or may not eat.
Soft drinks more expensive
A healthy lifestyle and the prevention of obesity and chronic diseases have been political issues for some time. Work is also underway on a sugar tax, for example by making soft drinks and sugar more expensive. VAT on vegetables and fruit will instead be reduced to 0 percent, but exactly how this will be implemented is not yet clear: the definition of what is and is not a vegetable is not entirely clear.
Other measures
The meat tax is mentioned as one of the possible measures to encourage people to start eating less meat. The research that Staghouwer wants to commission must examine how such a meat tax would work out. Other measures may be better; the minister also wants to investigate that.
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Source: NOS.nl
