I am creating this petition with the intention of imposing a tax on meat and animal products in Australia. Please sign and share to show your support, and read below for a summary as to why this is a necessary step forward. 

Animal product consumption is a leading cause of heart disease, strokes and several prominent cancers, yet no action is taken to reduce the consumption of these products. Red and processed meat are officially classified as Group 1 and 2A Carcinogens. These are known and likely causes of cancer, on par with cigarettes and asbestos. Dairy is the breast milk of a different species, with no nutritional benefit or compatibility with human species. All people are lactose intolerant to some extent, thus many express signs of discomfort, bloat and inflammation from dairy products. Meat also has no nutritional supremacy to plant-based protein alternatives, such as beans, lentils, chickpeas, tofu, tempeh and seitan. 

The next important reason to enforce a meat tax is for our planet. The recent IPCC Report has revealed that climate change progression is at a global code red level. The animal agriculture industry is one of the leading causes of climate change, where the factory farm industry is set to overtake the aviation and transport industry as the highest cause of emissions world wide. The Amazon rainforest, Australia’s biggest carbon sink, is being destroyed at an unfathomable rate to clear land to graze farm animals for slaughter. The meat tax will have the practical effect of reducing individual’s meat and dairy consumption, thus reducing demand and the environmental of animal agriculture. The pandemic that has claimed the lives of thousands around the world was caused by unsanitary and unsafe conditions in the wet markets of China, these should be signs that our involvement with animals is causing harm on an unprecedented scale. It's time that those in charge stand up and take action for our futures and the future of our children. 

Lastly, the conditions these poor animals are kept in and handled over the course of their short lives would be enough to make the strongest stomachs turn. Gas chambers, stun guns, knives to the throat, ripped away screaming from their children or mothers, stuffed in tiny metal cages, skinned alive for pelts, raped and forcibly impregnated for the sake of a meal. I believe if consumers had to take part in the process that took the animal from paddock to plate, most people would choose something else. It is not in our nature to inflict cruelty, and it is time for change. 

Take a stand for those that can't stand for themselves. Choose kindness for yourself, your planet and its creatures by imposing a significant tax on meat. My goal is to open the eyes of many to see the reality of what meat really is - a dead animal carcass; an unnecessary product of cruelty and violence; and dangerous consumable for both human health and the planet. Let it be taxed to sufficiently reciprocate the damage it causes.