‘Meat tax’ call generates little enthusiasm

DR Gary Haq’s articles on the environment and saving the planet never fail to fascinate me, and to learn that for the past 25 years he has been a vegetarian came as no surprise, (Yorkshire Post, April 26).

His call for a steep reduction in eating meat might have had a better impact if he had not mentioned the fact. The idea of a tax on meat as a “small sacrifice to secure the future of the planet” is unlikely to be warmly received outside of vegetarian circles, I am afraid.

The contribution of livestock to climate change, as a result of their eating habits and consequent flatulence, is perhaps best tackled by encouraging the animals (rather than us) to adopt a more enlightened diet, and should they (the animals, not us) fail to respond, each perhaps could be fitted with a miniaturised wind turbine in order to at least harvest this vast and constant source of energy.

I’m afraid Dr Haq’s figures for “early deaths” due to meat consumption do not impress me. I am sure similar, astonishingly precise, statistics are claimed by other scientists for all manner of other allegedly harmful foods, practises and lifestyles.

To worry about them causes only stress, which can lead to smoking.

From: Miss R Rayner, East Ayton, Scarborough.

IT is interesting to speculate on how Dr Haq proposes to deal with the amount of methane which the vast herds of herbivores, “sweeping majestically across the plains of Africa” excrete, and have been doing for centuries.

Perhaps Dr Haq is unaware that many cattle destined for human consumption are now factory-farmed and rarely see grass or any natural methane-producing food.