Leave our full English alone and focus on balanced diets — not a tax on meat which punishes poor
THEY have hammered our fags with taxes, whacked up the duty on booze and slapped a sugar tax on Mars bars.
Now they come for our sausages.
The Reverend Mike Rayner, a professor of Population Health at Oxford University and vocal sugar-tax supporter, is after our grub again.
He wants to tax red meat by 20 per cent, thinking it will cure the nation’s spiralling obesity problem.
The Rev has clout. He was one of the experts hired to assess the impact of the sugar tax, having previously said God had called on him to introduce the levy.
He has the ear of those who matter but they should not listen to him this time. This is the worst idea since the window tax of 1696.
I can see why the Rev thinks this is a good idea — he wants us to reduce our meat consumption.
More people are dying of obesity than ever before, and he says it will also help save the planet by cutting green-house emissions from farming.
But here is the thing — we are already reducing our meat intake. And we are eating more fruit and veg.
Last year a report from the Department for the Environment revealed how Brits had bought 4.2 per cent less meat in the previous 12 months and that has fallen by seven per cent since 2012.
Spending on fruit and veg has increased by four per cent in the past four years.
Cutting back on meat has become fashionable. Meat-Free Monday has been a thing for a while — even primary schools take part to help children see that there is food beyond bangers and burgers.
And then there is Veganuary, where people shun meat and dairy for the month of January.
It was highly popular this year, with 168,542 people signing up to take the pledge.
Vegan cafes are cropping up all over the place and every menu has options to cater for those on meat-free diets.
It is all about choice — eat it, don’t eat it. Up to you. If, of course, you can afford it.
Meat is already expensive. So, as with all these health-conscious policies, it is hard-working, less-well-off people who are hit hardest.
Increasing the price further is a tax on the poor. It is also a hammer blow for one of the last bastions of ancient British industry — farming.
I was a vegetarian for 20 years, which is why I love cheese so much.
It was moving to a farm that convinced me to eat meat again.
British farming standards ensure that if you eat good-quality meat, the animals have been ethically treated.
British farmers are the best in the world and our standards are high.
So what would this tax do to farmers? Do they only sell to the better off? Our farmers are struggling enough as it is.
What would it do to the great monument which is our countryside? The huge stately home I am lucky enough to live in is maintained by the farming industry.
We are a meat-eating nation and our tastes have shaped the world.
If you go to South America, you will find them eating Aberdeen Angus beef and Hereford cows.
Every country has one thing they do brilliantly that is also really cheap. In New York it is pizza, in Argentina it is steak and in Japan it is a big bowl of noodles. Here, it is the full English breakfast — you do not mess with that.
It fuels our workforce. Pop into any cafe at 7am on a weekday for a reminder.
Quality meat is good for you, too. It is packed with protein, iron, zinc and magnesium and jammed with lots of vitamins. It has a place in every balanced diet.
That is the point. A BALANCED diet. We should focus on education, not penalising people. We all have to learn to eat responsibly, but not by making things more expensive.
Thanks to the rise in celebrity chefs and brilliant programmes about food, we have learned a lot about food in the past few years.
It starts in schools. My kids are taught how to cook in classes.
When I was at school, only the girls had these lessons. How ridiculous.
Supermarkets also need to talk about how good they are and promote the amazing qualities that meat has.
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Everyone has a part to play — me, you, retailers, chefs and the Government.
We should respect quality, eat healthily and responsibly.
It will save our bacon.
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