The food industry isn’t sustainable for our health or the climate. That’s why we need a carbon tax

It’s high time that the government signalled to the food industry that it will introduce a carbon tax on food in 2025. We hope this would prompt the industry to reduce its carbon footprint voluntarily, and that it would also allow time to design an effective system and for the industry to adapt to change.  

But why bring this tax in the first place?  

We urgently need to reduce the harm to health of the climate crisis, which is already happening through air pollution, extreme weather and infectious diseases, and will be catastrophic if nothing is done. Acting to prevent climate change — for example by promoting walking and cycling rather than driving and reducing meat and dairy consumption — will also improve people’s health.

Health professionals have been working long hours to treat patients suffering from Covid-19, but recognising that the pandemic and the climate crisis have some similar causes, they have become ever more energetic in countering the climate crisis. The recent detailed plan from NHS England to achieve carbon net zero by 2040 illustrates that commitment.

The current food system accounts for around a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions and is unsustainable. Food production and consumption represents about a fifth of the UK’s emissions, with half coming from imports and related to deforestation. Beef and dairy farming are particularly harmful, accounting for half of food emissions. At the same time about half of food is wasted with much of the waste going to landfill.

Food is fundamental to health, but current diets are unhealthy. A quarter of adults and a fifth of children are obese, and diabetes rates are high and increasing. Yet at the same time more people are having to use food banks, and are going to bed hungry. The evidence is strong that eating less meat and dairy and more fruit and vegetables can reduce deaths from stroke, heart disease and diabetes. The Lancet has calculated that the world’s consumption of meat will need to halve for the food system to be sustainable. Yet global consumption has been growing steadily as people become wealthier, although consumption has dipped with the pandemic.

Changing a food system and a nation’s eating habits is not easy and requires not one but multiple changes. A new report from the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change makes several recommendations, including better information and advice for health professionals and the public, mandatory environmental food labelling and common environmental standards for all public procurement of food. The NHS, for example, is a major purchaser of food. Changing its practice could significantly reduce emissions and shift the market, expanding the supply of healthy and sustainable food.  

A food carbon tax has the potential to improve the whole system. The logic is simple: producers should pay for the damage they cause to the environment and health, and should be incentivised to move towards products and production methods that use less carbon. We saw long ago how steady increases in taxes on tobacco were successful in cutting smoking rates, and the evidence that increasing the price of alcohol reduces consumption is well established. More recently, evidence has grown that ‘sugar taxes’ can cut sugar consumption. The Treasury estimates that about half of manufacturers cut sugar in their products before the Soft Drinks Industry Levy came into force.

We hope that the signalling of the food carbon tax would prompt similar changes in the carbon in food. Public pressure will also be important, and two thirds of members of the recent UK Climate Assembly supported taxes and incentives for low carbon foods.

The government needs to prepare for the tax by modelling the carbon footprint of different foods; this modelling will also be needed for new environmental food labelling. The burden of the tax on UK farmers could be reduced by bringing forward the scheme that offers subsidies for biodiversity and afforestation.

The introduction of new taxes is never popular and it’s possible that the poorest may be hit hardest. The report recommends that the government commission independent research, including a public consultation, to inform the details of the tax and to mitigate the impact on those with low incomes. Getting the level of the tax right needs careful study, and combining taxes with subsidies of healthier low carbon foods might make taxes more acceptable — as might reserving the income from taxes for health initiatives.

Despite the difficulties of implementation, food carbon taxes have the potential to increase government income, reduce carbon emissions and waste and improve health. The British food system needs urgent improvement to become sustainable.

Dr Richard Smith is the chair of the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, which unites 21 organisations of health professionals, including the royal colleges of physicians, nurses, general practitioners, and surgeons, and the BMA