Food: Greenpeace for higher VAT on meat and milk

Food
Greenpeace for higher VAT on meat and milk

In the debate about an end to constant price wars for food, the environmental organization Greenpeace is campaigning for higher VAT on animal products.

“The new federal government should adjust the value added tax for meat and dairy products to the regular rate of 19 percent,” said agricultural expert Matthias Lambrecht to the newspapers of the Funke media group (Thursday). “In return, it can reduce the VAT on fruit and vegetables or eliminate it entirely.” Prompt contradiction came from the co-ruling FDP. Clarifications are due in the new year about financing more animal welfare in the stables, including through surcharges in the supermarket.

Lambrecht explained that such changes in VAT would relieve consumers and create incentives for more environmentally friendly and climate-friendly consumption of plant-based foods. At the same time, farms needed targeted support for better animal husbandry. Those consumers who buy meat and dairy products should pay for this through a tax or levy. It is not about telling people what they should eat, but simply about enforcing the polluter pays principle.

The FDP agricultural expert Gero Hocker, on the other hand, said: “Wanting to achieve more animal welfare and climate protection by increasing the value added tax on meat is window dressing.” It does not serve as a “steering tax for the re-education of the citizens”, and an increase in certain products would make the already complicated system even more incomprehensible. In addition, there is a great risk that money from additional tax revenues will not reach farmers in the stables in a targeted manner.

The debate about extremely cheap prices, especially for meat, flared up again at the turn of the year. The new Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens) took up this aspect and emphasized that there should be «no more junk prices» for food that would ruin farms and prevent more animal welfare. The former minister Julia Klöckner (CDU) had also repeatedly warned that meat should not be “junk goods” and promoted more appreciation.

From a feasibility study for the ministry, models are on the table of how financing could look so that farmers are not left with additional costs for better stables. According to the expert opinion of a commissioned law firm, price surcharges are in principle legally possible for consumers – however, a strict earmarking of the income only for German animal keepers would be problematic.

One feasible way would therefore be to increase the VAT rate from a reduced 7 to a full 19 percent for animal products or for all foods. An expert commission from the ministry had favored an “animal welfare tax” – with conceivable surcharges of 40 cents per kilogram of meat and sausage, 2 cents per kilo for milk and dairy products, and 15 cents per kilo for cheese and butter. It could be implemented as a consumption tax. According to the feasibility study, this would also be a viable option, for example with excise duties on coffee.

In the coalition agreement between the SPD, the Greens and the FDP there is no specific definition. A “system supported by market participants” is to be developed in order to use the income to promote running costs and investments for a specific purpose without “burdening trade” with “bureaucratic burdens”. FDP expert Hocker emphasized that a “real animal welfare offensive” was needed with the rapid introduction of the agreed, binding and transparent animal welfare label. “This means that consumers can also take responsibility themselves at the shop counter.”

The consumer advice centers are also demanding compensation for possible surcharges for meat and sausages – by charging fruit, vegetables and pulses with an even lower VAT rate than the already reduced 7 percent. A commission on the future of agriculture set up by the Federal Cabinet also named a VAT cut to promote fruit and vegetables as an option for financial incentives.

dpa