Despite knowing that eating more fruit and vegetables, and less meat and dairy would have a positive impact on the health of our nation, we continue to believe that it is culturally too hard to get people to change their diets, and this needs to change if we are to tackle the growing health and environmental emergencies caused by meat and dairy consumption.
The COVID-19 pandemic represents a tipping point in our collective consciousness, which we can capitalise on to improve the health of ourselves and our planet. We need a change in policy to remove subsidies for the meat and dairy industries. In addition, meat and dairy should be taxed as luxury products with VAT added. These industries should reflect the damage they do to the environment, to animals and to our health in the same way that tobacco is taxed to reflect the additional costs to society. People should pay a proper price for the meat they choose to consume, which more accurately reflects the damage caused to the environment and to health. This would encourage a reduction in meat and dairy consumption and a change in attitude so people see it as a luxury item and not something to be consumed multiple times per day.
We should switch subsidies to whole-foods, such as vegetables, fruit, pulses, grains, seeds and nuts to drive consumer behaviour towards these more desirable forms of nutrition. In addition, through education policies we should encourage the consumption of a whole food, plant-based diet. We should actively discourage food manufacturers from stepping in with ultra-processed ‘plant-based’ products and educate the public to the benefits of whole foods, as opposed to just switching from a processed meat and dairy diet to a processed ‘plant-based’ diet which would be unlikely to have much impact on our overall health.
By addressing this issue, we would be seizing the opportunity for change that has been thrown up by the COVID-19 pandemic, capitalising on our growing collective consciousness of the role of animals and humans on this planet, and dealing with the most pressing emergencies of our time.
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