“It's not as simple as something like sugar”: values and conflict in the UK meat tax debate
International Journal of Health Governance
ISSN: 2059-4631
Article publication date: 30 June 2021
Issue publication date: 12 October 2021
Abstract
Purpose
This paper qualitatively explores arguments in the UK meat tax debate, including how they align with values from specific political ideologies and perspectives on sustainable food security.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a scoping media analysis of articles published over 1 year in six leading UK newspapers, followed by semi-structured interviews with ten key stakeholders in late 2019. The authors identified categories of arguments, distilled the core conflicts and analysed how arguments reflected different ideas about human nature, the role of the state and solutions to food system challenges.
Findings
Arguments were categorised into five major topics: climate change and environment; human health; effects on animals; fairness; and acceptability of government intervention. Pro-meat tax arguments often aligned with modern liberal ideology, and sometimes echoed demand restraint or food system transformation perspectives on sustainable food security. Arguments against meat taxes were more likely to align with the efficiency perspective or classical liberal ideology.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first interpretive analyses of this controversial suggested policy. Despite having similarities with other debates around taxation – particularly taxes on sugar sweetened beverages – the meat tax debate contains unique complexities due to the prominence of environmental arguments, and differing values pertaining to animal welfare and rights. This study highlights the need for policy research exploring values, in addition to quantitative evidence.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Damian Maye, Julie Ingram, and Jona Nengerman for their comments on earlier versions of this paper, and to the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback. The first author would also like to thank Barbara Ballantyne for logistical support during the data collection period, and Anna Filipowicz for assistance with creating the figures.
Financial support: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Authorship- CRediT statement: Philippa Simmonds: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing- Original Draft Signild Vallgårda: Supervision, Validation, Writing- Review and Editing
Ethical standards disclosure: This study was conducted according to the guidelines laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki and all procedures involving research study participants were approved by the Research Ethics Committee for Science and Health at The University of Copenhagen. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants.
Conflict of interest: None.
Citation
Simmonds, P. and Vallgårda, S. (2021), "“It's not as simple as something like sugar”: values and conflict in the UK meat tax debate", International Journal of Health Governance, Vol. 26 No. 3, pp. 307-322. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJHG-03-2021-0026
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited