Ezra Klein has a new fortnightly column in the WaPo food section on food politics. Today’s contribution builds on the longstanding lefty argument that eating meat is evil, this time because it contributes to global warming:
But at base, these policies aim to do a simple thing, in a simple way: persuade us to undertake fewer activities that are bad for the atmosphere by making those activities more expensive. Driving an SUV would become pricier. So would heating a giant house with coal and buying electricity from an inefficient power plant. But there’s one activity that’s not on the list and should be: eating a hamburger. … The Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, for instance, does nothing to address the emissions from livestock.
In lieu of a beef tax, he recommends people eat less meat voluntarily. But he wants to sound reasonable:
It’s also worth saying that this is not a call for asceticism. It’s not a value judgment on anyone’s choices. Going vegetarian might not be as effective as going vegan, but it’s better than eating meat, and eating meat less is better than eating meat more. It would be a whole lot better for the planet if everyone eliminated one meat meal a week than if a small core of die-hards developed perfectly virtuous diets.
But it is a value judgment when you describe veganism as a “perfectly virtuous diet.” And watch for meat to receive the tobacco treatment:
I’ve not had the willpower to eliminate bacon from my life entirely, and so I eliminated it from breakfast and lunch, and when that grew easier, pulled back further to allow myself five meat-based meals a month. And believe me, I enjoy the hell out of those five meals.
Is he going to recommend meat-flavored gum next, just to take the edge off the craving for those who haven’t yet been able to kick the habit? And lawsuits against the Merchants of Flesh, with big payouts for trial lawyers? What about developing countries, whose people are working and earning and saving and investing precisely so they can eat more meat?
Just so you know, I think we do eat too much meat, and salt, sugar, and fat, because our species evolved to crave these once rare elements of our diet which are now abundant. But vegetarianism and veganism are not only not virtuous, they’re immoral, based as they are on the principle that animals are morally equivalent to humans. Likewise, meat probably should cost more than it does, but not because we need a global-warming tax on it but because animals, while lacking “rights,” are not inanimate objects we can use with impunity as industrial inputs — and their humane treatment will almost certainly raise the price of hamburgers.
But it seems that Orwell is still right — socialism draws with magnetic force the nudists, pacifists, sandal-wearers, and vegetarians.