27. See Appendix C, table C3.
28. These are (using 2013 USDA budget figures): Farm Service Agency, $12.1 billion; Risk Management Agency, $9.6 billion; Research, Education, and Economics, $2.7 billion; Marketing and Regulatory Programs, $2.4 billion; and Foreign Agricultural Service, $2.1 billion. Note that this budget was prepared in 2012 and is in 2012 dollars, hence these figures require no inflation adjustment. US Department of Agriculture, “FY 2013 Budget.”
29. Total 2013 USDA budget for these programs is $28.9 billion. Applying the 63 percent multiplier introduced in chapter 5 as the portion of farm subsidies benefiting animal food production yields $18.2 billion related to animal food production. Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, “Agriculture and Health Policies in Conflict.”
30. The 2009 study prepared for Canadian dairy farmers estimates 2009 US irrigation subsidies at $1.8 billion (federal) plus $21.5 billion (state) for a total of $23.3 billion, or $24.9 billion in current dollars. (Grey et al., “Farming the Mailbox.”) Using the 63 percent multiplier introduced in chapter 5 as the portion of farm subsidies benefiting animal food production, the portion of this total attributable to meat and dairy is $15.7 billion. (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, “Agriculture and Health Policies in Conflict.”) The estimated reduction in demand resulting from the Meat Tax is 65 percent of the tax rate of 50 percent, or 32.5 percent. Multiplying 32.5 percent by $15.7 billion yields $5.1 billion. However, land used for livestock or feed crops would likely be repurposed to different crops following a drop in consumption of animal foods, and such subsidies would likely continue—although supporting healthier foods. Accordingly, such a subsidy shift is not counted as a reduction in the subsidy total for purposes of savings calculations.
31. See Appendix C, table C4.
32. This figure assumes that a reduction in animal food consumption will cause a pro rata reduction in deaths attributable to eating animal foods. This assumption has clinical support in the research cited in chapter 6, which finds that the less animal foods people eat, the less susceptible to disease they are. Lives-saved figures are based on annual deaths from heart disease (598,607), cancer (568,668), and diabetes (68,504), multiplied by the percentages of these deaths attributed to meat and dairy consumption: 0.3, 0.33, and 0.33, respectively, and further multiplied by the 0.441 decrease in consumption. Death figures are from Kenneth D. Kochanek et al., “Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2009,” US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Vital Statistics Reports 59, no. 4 (2011).
33. Fifty-nine billion land and marine animals are killed for food each year in the United States; 44.1 percent of this total is 26 billion. Free from Harm, “59 Billion Land and Sea Animals Killed for Food in the US in 2009” (2011), accessed August 18, 2012, http://freefromharm.org.
34. According to the US EPA, total US carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent emissions were 6,821.8 million metric tons (MMT) in 2010. (US Environmental Protection Agency, “U.S. Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report,” Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990–2010 [2012], accessed October 1, 2012, http://www.epa.gov.). Goodland and Anhang estimate that 51 percent of emissions of CO2 equivalents is attributable to animal agriculture, which represents 3,479.1 MMT of the US total. (Goodland and Anhang, “Livestock and Climate Change.”) The 44.1 percent of this figure that the tax proposal would eliminate is 1,534 MMT, or 3.4 trillion pounds of CO2 equivalents. That is more than the 1,497 MMT that the US EPA estimates was emitted in 2010 by all US passenger cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, boats, and ships. (US Environmental Protection Agency, “Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions,” 14, table 3.12; note that MMT and teragrams are equivalent units of measure).
35. US animal feed operations generate 500 million tons of manure yearly. Multiply 44.1 percent by that total to get 220 million tons, or 440 billion pounds. US Environmental Protection Agency, “National Pollutant Discharge Regulation Guidelines.”
36. The USDA estimates that 35 percent of the total US land area of 2.3 billion acres, or about 805 million acres, is used to graze livestock. (Ruben N. Lubowski et al., “Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2002,” USDA Economic Research Service [2006], accessed August 19, 2012, http://www.ers.usda.gov.) Further, while 442 million US acres of nongrazing land is used as cropland, 52 percent of this—or 223 million acres—is dedicated to growing feed crops. (Ibid.) Added to the 805 million acres of grazing land, that's a total of 1,028 million acres. Reducing this total by 44.1 percent to reflect the tax's effect on consumption suggests 453 million acres, or about 708,000 square miles, would no longer be devoted to animal agriculture. And since research finds that it takes five times as much land to feed an omnivore as an herbivore, it should take only one-fifth of that land (about 142,000 square miles) to address the increase in consumption of plant-based foods that will result from the Meat Tax. (Christian J. Peters, Jennifer L. Wilkins, and Gary W. Fick, “Testing a Complete Diet Model for Estimating the Land Resource Requirements of Food Consumption and Agricultural Carrying Capacity: The New York State Example,” Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 22, no. 2 [2007]: 145–53.)
37. See Appendix C, table C8.
38. See Appendix C, table C10.
39. See Appendix C, table C9.
40. Khoa Dang Truong and Roland Sturm, “Weight Gain Trends across Sociodemographic Groups in the United States,” American Journal of Public Health 95, no. 9 (2005): 1602–4.
41. Doreen M. Rabi et al., “Association of Socio-Economic Status with Diabetes Prevalence and Utilization of Diabetes Care Services,” BMC Health Services Research, accessed August 14, 2012, http://www.biomedcentral.com.
42. Gary L. Francione, Rain without Thunder: The Ideology of the Animal Rights Movement (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996); Gary L. Francione and Robert Garner, The Animal Rights Debate: Abolition or Regulation? (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010).
43. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Highest Incidence Rates of Total Nonfatal Occupational Injury and Illness Cases, 2009,” 2009 Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses.
44. Workers earned $7.70 an hour in 2000; that's $10.24 in 2012 dollars. Charlie LeDuff, “At a Slaughterhouse, Some Things Never Die: Who Kills, Who Cuts, Who Bosses Can Depend on Race,” New York Times (June 16, 2000).
45. Ibid.
46. Robert Gottleib and Anupama Joshi, Food Justice (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010).
47. Caryl Phillips, The Atlantic Sound (New York: Random House, 2000), 33–34.
48. Drew Gilpin Faust, ed., The Ideology of Slavery: Proslavery Thought in the Antebellum South, 1830–1860 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana University Press, 1981), 21, 30.
49. John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (London: Penguin, 1982), 68.
50. Christopher D. Stone, Should Trees Have Standing? Law, Morality and the Environment (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010).
51. Cited in Bradford Fitch, “Five Strategies for Building Successful Relationships with Elected Officials,” Congressional Management Foundation (2012), accessed October 27, 2012, www.congressionalfoundation.org.
Appendix A
1. Beef Checkoff, “Beef Checkoff Hosts Protein Webinars,” accessed January 6, 2012, http://www.beefboard.org; Pork Checkoff, “Quick Facts: The Pork Industry at a Glance,” 3, accessed January 6, 2012, http://showpig.com.
2. John McDougall, “Plant Foods Have a Complete Amino Acid Composition,” Circulation 105 (2002): e197.
3. M. G. Hardinge, H. Crooks, and F. J. Stare, “Nutritional Studies of Vegetarians: V. Proteins and Essential Amino Acids,” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 48, no. 1 (1966): 25–28.
4. Stanger, Perfect Formula Diet, 34.
5. Milton R. Mills, “The Comparative Anatomy of Eating” (2009), accessed October 13, 2011, http://www.earthsave.ca.
6. Victor Herbert, “Vitamin B-12: Plant Sources, Requirements and Assay,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 48, no. 3 (1988): 852–58.
7. J. Hultdin et al
., “Plasma Folate, Vitamin B12, and Homocysteine and Prostate Cancer Risk: A Prospective Study,” International Journal of Cancer 113, no. 5 (2005): 819–24.
8. Pat Shipman, “Scavenging or Hunting in Early Hominids: Theoretical Framework and Tests,” American Anthropologist 88, no. 1 (1986): 27–43.
9. Quoted in Neil Schoenherr, “‘Man the Hunter’ Theory Debunked in New Book,” Washington University in St. Louis Newsroom (2006), accessed October 15, 2011, http://news.wustl.edu.
10. Donna Hunt and Robert W. Sussman, Man the Hunted: Primates, Predators, and Human Evolution (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2005).
11. United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, “Smallholder Dairy Development—Lessons Learned in Asia” (2009), 1, accessed December 29, 2011, ftp://ftp.fao.org.
12. Michael Klaper, speech of July 19, 1985, quoted in Organic Health and Beauty, “Got Milk,” accessed April 1, 2013, http://www.organichealthandbeauty.com.
13. Catherine S. Berkey et al., “Dairy Consumption and Female Height Growth: Prospective Cohort Study,” Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention 18 (2009): 1881–87.
14. Martin Ahlgren et al., “Growth Patterns and the Risk of Breast Cancer in Women,” New England Journal of Medicine 351 (2004): 1619–26; B. L. De Stavola et al., “Childhood Growth and Breast Cancer,” American Journal of Epidemiology 159 (2004): 671–82.
15. Campbell and Campbell, China Study.
16. See for example, E. Giovannucci et al., “Calcium and Fructose Intake in Relation to Risk of Prostate Cancer,” Cancer Research 58, no. 3 (1998): 442–47; A. G. Schuurman et al., “Animal Products, Calcium and Protein and Prostate Cancer Risk in the Netherlands Cohort Study,” British Journal of Cancer 80, no. 7 (1999): 1107–13; J. M. Chan et al., “Dairy Products, Calcium, and Prostate Cancer Risk in the Physicians' Health Study,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 74, no. 4 (2001): 549–54.
17. Giovannucci et al., “Calcium Intake in Relation to Prostate Cancer.”
18. Jane A. Plant, The No-Dairy Breast Cancer Prevention Program: How One Scientist's Discovery Helped Her Defeat Her Cancer (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2001).
19. S. C. Larsson, L. Bergkvist, and A. Wolk, “Milk and Lactose Intakes and Ovarian Cancer Risk in the Swedish Mammography Cohort,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 80, no. 5 (2004): 1353–57; Lawrence H. Kushi et al., “Prospective Study of Diet and Ovarian Cancer,” American Journal of Epidemiology 49 (1999): 21–31.
20. A. J. Lanou, S. E. Berkow, and N. D. Barnard, “Calcium, Dairy Products, and Bone Health in Children and Young Adults: A Reevaluation of the Evidence,” Pediatrics 115, no. 3 (2005): 736–43.
21. Ibid., abstract.
22. D. Feskanich et al., “Milk, Dietary Calcium, and Bone Fractures in Women: A 12-Year Prospective Study,” American Journal of Public Health 87, no. 6 (1997): 992–97.
23. R. G. Cumming and R. J. Klineberg, “Case-Control Study of Risk Factors for Hip Fractures in the Elderly,” American Journal of Epidemiology 139, no. 5 (1994): 493–503.
24. Uriel S. Barzel and Linda K. Massey, “Excess Dietary Protein Can Adversely Affect Bone,” Journal of Nutrition 128, no. 6 (1998): 1051–53; J. Lemann Jr., “Relationship Between Urinary Calcium and Net Acid Excretion as Determined by Dietary Protein and Potassium: A Review,” Nephron 81, supplement 1 (1999): 18–25.
25. Campbell and Campbell, China Study.
26. D. Mark Hegsted, “Fractures, Calcium, and the Modern Diet,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 74, no. 5 (2001): 571–73.
27. Ibid., 571.
28. Mark Hegsted, “Calcium and Osteoporosis,” Journal of Nutrition 116, no. 11 (1986): 2316–19.
29. B. J. Abelow, T. R. Holford, and K. L. Insogna. “Cross-Cultural Association between Dietary Animal Protein and Hip Fracture: A Hypothesis,” Calcified Tissue International 50, no. 1 (1992): 14–18.
30. Martin Ahlgren et al., “Growth Patterns and the Risk of Breast Cancer in Women,” New England Journal of Medicine 351 (2004): 1619–26.
31. Stavola et al., “Childhood Growth and Breast Cancer.”
32. Benjamin Spock, Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care, seventh ed. (Pocket Books, New York: 1998), 195.
33. Quoted in “Does It Taste Good? Watch Out!” Deseret News (September 30, 1992), accessed July 14, 2012, http://www.deseretnews.com.
34. National Academy of Sciences, “Dietary Reference Intakes for Fat,” 441, 542.
35. See, for example, R. M. Weggemans, P. L. Zock, and M. B. Katan, “Dietary Cholesterol from Eggs Increases the Ratio of Total Cholesterol to High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol in Humans: A Meta-Analysis,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 73, no. 5 (2001): 885–91.
36. Adnan I. Qureshi et al., “Regular Egg Consumption Does Not Increase the Risk of Stroke and Cardiovascular Diseases,” Medical Science Monitor 13, no. 1 (2007): CR1–8.
37. USDA Agricultural Research Service, “Nutrient Intakes from Food: Mean Amounts Consumed per Individual, One Day, 2005–2006 (2008),” accessed January 26, 2012, http://www.ars.usda.gov.
38. Norris and Messina, “Disease Markers of Vegetarians.”
39. Yasuyuki Nakamura et al., “Egg Consumption, Serum Cholesterol, and Cause-Specific and All Cause Mortality: The National Integrated Project for Prospective Observation of Non-Communicable Disease and Its Trends in the Aged, 1980 (NIPPON DATA80),” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 80 (2004): 58–63.
40. Ibid., 63.
41. Poultry Production News, “American Egg Board Funded $2 Million in Nutrition Research in 2010” (2011), accessed December 31, 2011, http://poultryproductionnews.blogspot.com.
42. Marcia D. Greenblum, “An Egg a Day is More than Okay!” Nutrition Realities, accessed December 31, 2011, http://www.eggnutritioncenter.org.
43. Penny M. Kris-Etherton, William S. Harris, and Lawrence J. Appel, “Fish Consumption, Fish Oil, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, and Cardiovascular Disease,” Circulation 106 (2002): 2747–57.
44. B. C. Scudder et al., “Mercury in Fish, Bed Sediment, and Water from Streams across the United States, 1998–2005,” US Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2009–5109 (2009).
45. David L. Stalling and Foster Lee Mayer Jr., “Toxicities of PCBs to Fish and Environmental Residues,” Environmental Health Perspectives 1 (1972): 159–64.
46. Campbell and Campbell, China Study.
47. Scudder et al., “Mercury in Fish.”
48. E. Sunderland et al., “Mercury Sources, Distribution, and Bioavailability in the North Pacific Ocean: Insights from Data and Models,” Global Biogeochemical Cycles 23 (2009).
49. Stalling and Mayer, “Toxicities of PCBs to Fish.”
50. Consumeraffairs.com, “Americans Confused about Health Effects of Eating Fish” (2006), accessed November 15, 2011, http://www.consumeraffairs.com; Charlotte Seidman, “Fish is Good—Fish is Bad. Balancing Health Risks and Benefits,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine (2005), accessed November 15, 2011, http://foodconsumer.org.
51. Janet M. Torpy, Cassio Lynm, and Richard M. Glass, “Eating Fish: Health Benefits and Risks,” Journal of the American Medical Association 296, no. 15 (2006): 1926.
52. Environmental Defense Fund, “List of Seafood Health Alerts,” accessed November 15, 2011, http://apps.edf.org.
Appendix B
1. Health care, see chapter 6; subsidies, see chapter 5; environmental, see chapter 7; cruelty, see chapter 8; fishing, see chapter 9; inflation adjustments, US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, “CPI Inflation Calculator,” accessed October 27, 2012, http://www.bls.gov.
Appendix C
1. US Poultry & Egg Association, “Economic Data” (2011), accessed August 13, 2012, http://uspoultry.org; USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, “Milk Production, Disposition and Income 2011 Summary” (2012), accessed August 13, 2012, http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu; USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, “Meat Animals Production, Disposition and Income 2011 Summary” (2012), accessed Augus
t 13, 2012, http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu.
2. Tatiana Andreyeva, Michael W. Long, and Kelly D. Brownell, “The Impact of Food Prices on Consumption: A Systematic Review of Research on the Price Elasticity of Demand for Food,” American Journal of Public Health 100, no. 2 (2010): 216–22.
3. These are (using 2013 USDA budget figures): Farm Service Agency, $12.1 billion; Risk Management Agency, $9.6 billion; Research, Education, and Economics, $2.7 billion; Marketing and Regulatory Programs, $2.4 billion; and Foreign Agricultural Service $2.1 billion.
4. 63 percent of subsidies are related to animal food production ($28.9 billion x 0.63 = $18.2 billion). Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, “Agriculture and Health Policies in Conflict.”
5. One view is that American farmers pass through to consumers “less than ten percent” of corn-related cost increases (Ephraim Leibtag, “Corn Prices Near Record High, But What about Food Costs?” Amber Waves: The Economics of Food, Farming, Natural Resources and Rural America [2008]). Another is that American consumers pay “the bulk of” cost increases related to livestock production (Bruce Gardner, “The Economic System of U.S. Animal Agriculture and the Incidence of Cost Increases,” in Sharing Costs of Change in Food Animal Production: Producers, Consumers, Society and the Environment, ed. Richard Reynnells [Washington, DC: USDA, 2003] 6).
6. $115.1 billion x 0.32 = $36.8 billion. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Consumer Expenditure Survey 2010” (2011), Current Expenditure Tables, accessed December 3, 2011, http://www.bls.gov.
7. As explained in chapter 10, because we've seen that checkoffs drive about $4.6 billion in annual sales of animal foods, or 1.8 percent of the industry's total annual sales of $251 billion, eliminating these programs should reduce consumption by about 1.8 percent.
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