Meat eating and the flexitarianism
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Should there be a tax on red meat? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46122227
Yes if you follow the logic of taxiing cigarettes and alcohol for ‘health’ reasons.
“Taxing red meat will save the health service £ millions” is unfortunately another misuse of statistics. A health economist once explained to me that the “economics” of illness prevention do not add up, because the statisticians miss one vital point. At some point we all die.
If we put in place illness prevention, all we are doing is kicking the likelihood of death further down the road, we will all reach it at some point.
Smoking, alcohol and perhaps red meat all might lead to heart disease, diabetes, cancer, etc. but these are much “cheaper deaths” than Alzheimer’s disease, long term disability, and all of the other enduring and very expensive to treat illnesses of later life, which are effectively “expensive deaths”.
For the capitalist system the optimal health state of the working class is to be hale and hearty until the moment we can work no more, and then for us to die off quickly and inexpensively. Expect to see guidance from the government extolling the health benefits and virtues of smoking, drinking alcohol, eating lard by the bucket full and the daily consumption of a full English (also Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Cornish and Northumbrian) breakfast, but only for retirees.
I already refered to this tax in an earlier post. Missed by the number of times i post, or missed because people don’t read what i post?
The global deaths are over 200000.
Scotland has imposed a ban on cheap booze, there are sugar taxes being imposed world-wide.
If they didn’t work, they wouldn’t apply them.
Yup Bijou, one thing is certain we all die and the quicker the better after we become no use to the capitalist class.
The elderly is a burden to capitalist society. Hence we are being made to toil for longer, cuts are being made to social services and care homes to the old …it will only get worse with the demographics changing, all those young fit working-age people getting fewer and fewer and the right wing placing bans on the newcomers from abroad supplementing them…Its a topic for another thread but our blog has covered many stories of the social abuse of the elderly, and euthanasia may well become a hidden policy in the NHS as many cliam the rationing of treatment is already taking place.
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-46139595
<p class=”story-body__introduction”>Diabetes prescriptions are costing the NHS in England more than £1 billion a year, according to figures from NHS Digital.</p>
The total cost of the prescriptions has risen significantly – by more than £422 million – in the last 10 years.Almost one in 20 prescriptions written by GPs are now for diabetes treatment.
Almost 20% of deaths worldwide are attributable to an unhealthy diet, with high blood pressure and smoking completing the top three risk factors for reaching the grave, according to a new report on the state of the world’s health.
The study, which focuses on 2017, has revealed that non-communicable diseases such as cancer and diabetes now account for nearly three-quarters of the 55.9m deaths worldwide, with experts stressing a large proportion of these are unnecessarily early.
“A lot of these problems are potentially preventable: things like high blood pressure and smoking are still causing a massive burden of mortality and ill-health,” said Prof John Newton, director of health improvement at Public Health England and a collaborator on the project.
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Globally, the leading cause of death is cardiovascular disease, with abnormal tissue growth including cancers in second place, and chronic respiratory conditions in third. Among cancer deaths, lung cancer was the most common cause.
The data revealed that our behaviour is our biggest threat to staying alive, with poor diet the greatest risk factor. Indeed, a bad diet was behind more than 19% of all deaths worldwide in 2017, and almost 70% of coronary heart disease deaths.
Experts say the latest findings reflect an accelerating shift away from deaths relating to infections and problems around birth and towards diseases such as cancer and diabetes.
Dr Christopher Murray, senior author of the research, said “People are free to change their diet but statistically we know you are very likely to eat what you ate when you were younger and what the people around you eat – so public policy can have a big influence through taxes and subsidies and other strategies,”
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My bad, Alan. I read the story yesterday, and thought if I didn’t post it, I’d forget.
I have been arguing on Twitter with a nasty piece of work for most of the week. Twitter support have said her posts are in violation of rules, on hateful behaviour. So I haven’t had time to read any of the (quite long) posts, tbh.
I was a vegetarian and then became a vegan. Primarily because of welfare issues, thinking naively that not eating meat, production could be in the end geared to feeding hungry people? Capitalism isn’t about feeding people, primarily. I also constantly felt hungry.
After reading and learning the Party case, my concern for animal welfare turned to the welfare of fellow workers, as we are also treated inhumanly.
I think to be fair that veganism is compassion towards all living things…..
A while back i submitted an article to the SS on the detrimental effects of pet-ownership. I think it was declined in case we alienated pet-lovers when i suggested that there will be less psychological need in socialism to keep pets.
See my personal blog where i posted the submission
https://mailstrom.blogspot.com/2017/09/pet-profits.html
But the problem exists. Our dogs and cats compete for our food, it is not just the inedible animal parts.
If just one-quarter of the estimated 33% animal-derived energy in pet food was consumable by humans, it alone would support the animal-derived energy consumption of 26 million Americans (with 19% of their energy in derived from animal products). This same energy is equal to the entire energy requirement of almost 5 million Americans, or approximately the population of Colorado. If animal-derived energy was converted to its plant equivalent, one-quarter of the animal-derived energy in US dogs’ and cats’ food would support ~35 million humans. If even only 5% of the animal-derived energy in pet food could be eaten by humans, this would be equivalent to the animal-product consumption of more than 5 million Americans, and the total energy consumption of 1 million Americans, or about the population of Montana
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0181301
And that is just the USA. Rather than enjoying a dog-eating diet, Asians are now increasingly pet-owning with canine legally off the menu.
So how much resources do we devote to our four-legged friends.
If i recall, the motivation for the post came from reading that in the West veterinary surgeries now have more high-tech diagnostic and treatment equipment than many developing countries hospitals and clinics.
I recall from my own anecdotal evidence this is due to the rise of the pet insurance industry because i know vets in my youth would recommended putting your animal down if the cost was high, but now, they’ll offer heart transplants and what not for your pet since the insurance will pay. (Same thing with dentistry – private dentists arose with the growth of dental plans.)
The U.S. Department of Agriculture projects per capita chicken consumption will rise only about 1.2 percent next year, compared to gains of 4.3 percent for pork and 2.6 percent for beef. An expansion in the number of U.S. hogs and cattle is contributing to the change in diets by boosting supplies of pork and beef.
“If just one-quarter of the estimated 33% animal-derived energy in pet food was consumable by humans, it alone would support the animal-derived energy consumption of 26 million Americans (with 19% of their energy in derived from animal products). This same energy is equal to the entire energy requirement of almost 5 million Americans, or approximately the population of Colorado. If animal-derived energy was converted to its plant equivalent, one-quarter of the animal-derived energy in US dogs’ and cats’ food would support ~35 million humans. If even only 5% of the animal-derived energy in pet food could be eaten by humans, this would be equivalent to the animal-product consumption of more than 5 million Americans, and the total energy consumption of 1 million Americans, or about the population of Montana”
Even by your very high cheery arsed standards, you have surpassed yourself with this one, Alan.
Our next election leaflet could read, “Vote for Socialism, vote for eating Pedigree Chum”
I’m sure the working class would be flooding to that particular banner!
Pet food is always marketed to the “tastes” of people. Pets can’t read the adverts and don’t have money to shop.
When i left the UK i recall a new cat food flavour was lemon sole
I also recall a vet explaining to me the healthiest dog food was Chappie, which was the cheapest of the cheap – because it was mostly fish by-products, not your beefy juicy Chum…..mmmm…similar to that Greggs pasty you been eating 😛
Where i live now, i buy human quality food for my two dogs, just cheap offal cuts that the supermarkets in the UK cannot put on their shelves because of the Western finickity palates.
Now the doctors report. Western lifestyle is bad for your health
Dr Noel Mueller, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University, who led the research, said: “The idea that blood pressure rises with age as part of a natural phenomenon is increasingly being dispelled through evidence… but a result of longer exposure to risks arising from lifestyle, such as high levels of salt in the diet, lack of exercise and heavy drinking…”
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