Meatonomics (44 page)

28
. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “Fishwatch: U.S. Seafood Facts,” accessed October 1, 2012,
http://www.fishwatch.gov
.

29
. Matthias Halwart, Doris Soto, and J. Richard Arthur, eds., “Cage Aquaculture: Regional Reviews and Global Overview” (technical paper no. 498, UN FAO Fisheries, Rome, 2007).

30
. Philip Lymberly, “In Too Deep: The Welfare of Intensively Farmed Fish,” Compassion in World Farming Trust (2002), accessed October 1, 2012, at
http://www.ciwf.org.uk
.

31
. C. Sommerville, “Parasites of Farmed Fish,” in
Biology of Farmed Fish
, eds. K. D. Black and A. D. Pickering (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998).

32
. A. Mustafa, G.A. Conboy, and J. F. Burka, “Life-Span and Reproductive Capacity of Sea Lice,
Lepeophtheirus salmonis
, under Laboratory Conditions,”
Aquaculture Association of Canada Special Publication
4 (2000): 113–14.

33
. M. Krkošek et al., “Epizootics of Wild Fish Induced by Farm Fish,”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
103, no. 42 (2006): 15506–10.

34
. M. Krkošek et al., “Declining Wild Salmon Populations in Relation to Parasites from Farm Salmon,”
Science
318, no. 5857 (2007): 1772–75.

35
. Cornelia Dean, “Saving Wild Salmon, in Hopes of Saving the Orca,”
New York Times
(November 4, 2008).

36
. R. J. Goldburg, M. S. Elliott, and R. L. Naylor,
Marine Aquaculture in the United States: Environmental Impacts and Policy Options
(Arlington, VA: Pew Oceans Commission, 2001).

37
. W. Ernst et al., “Dispersion and Toxicity to Non-Target Aquatic Organisms of Pesticides Used to Treat Sea Lice on Salmon in Net Pen Enclosures,”
Marine Pollution Bulletin
42, no. 6 (2001): 433–44.

38
. M. MacGarvin, “Scotland's Secret: Aquaculture, Nutrient Pollution, Eutrophication and Toxic Blooms,”
WWF Scotland
(2000), accessed October 1, 2012,
http://assets.wwf.org.uk
.

39
. Quirin Schiermeier, “Fish Farms' Threat to Salmon Stocks Exposed,”
Nature
425, no. 6960 (2003): 753.

40
. L. P. Hansen, J. A. Jacobsen, and R. A. Lund, “The Incidence of Escaped Farmed Atlantic Salmon,
Salmo salar
L., in the Faroese Fishery and Estimates of Catches of Wild Salmon,”
ICES Journal of Marine Science
56 (1999): 200–6.

41
. Schiermeier, “Fish Farms' Threat Exposed.”

42
. Rosamond L. Naylor et al., “Effect of Aquaculture on World Fish Supplies,”
Nature
405 (2000): 1017–24.

43
. Margot L. Stiles et al., “Hungry Oceans: What Happens When the Prey is Gone?” Oceana (2009), 13, accessed June 22, 2012,
http://oceana.org
.

44
. Ibid., 18.

45
. Ibid.

46
. Quoted in Dan Shapley, “3 Major Reports Paint Same Picture: Ocean Fish Are Rapidly in Decline,”
The Daily Green
(March 4, 2009), accessed June 22, 2012,
http://www.thedailygreen.com
.

47
. Elisabeth Rosenthal, “Another Side of Tilapia, the Perfect Factory Fish,”
New York Times
(May 2, 2011).

48
. Kelly L. Weaver et al., “The Content of Favorable and Unfavorable Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Found in Commonly Eaten Fish,”
Journal of the American Dietetic Association
108 (2008): 1178–85.

49
. Rosenthal, “Another Side of Tilapia.”

50
. G. Knapp, “The World Salmon Farming Industry,” in
The Great Salmon Run: Competition between Wild and Farmed Salmon
, eds. G. Knapp, C. Roheim, and J. Anderson (Washington, DC: World Wildlife Fund, 2007).

51
. Rebecca Clausen and Stefano B. Longo, “The Tragedy of the Commodity and the Farce of AquAdvantage Salmon,”
Development and Change
43, no. 1 (2012): 229–51.

52
. Rivera-Ferre, “A Chicken and Egg Paradigm?”

53
.
See, for example
, Carl Folke et al., “The Ecological Footprint Concept for Sustainable Seafood Production: A Review,”
Ecological Applications
8, no. 1, supplement (1998): S63–S71.

54
. Carl Folke, Nils Kautsky, and Max Troell, “The Costs of Eutrophication from Salmon Farming: Implications for Policy,”
Journal of Environmental Management
40 (1994): 173–82.

55
. Li Lai and Xian-jin Huang, “Environmental Cost Accounting of Pen Fish Farming in East Tai Lake,”
Resources Science
30, no. 10 (2008): 1579–84, abstract.

56
. Rosenthal, “Another Side of Tilapia.”

57
. NOAA Fisheries Service, “Aquaculture in the United States,” accessed June 18, 2012,
http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov
.

58
. World Bank and UN FAO,
The Sunken Billions
, 1 (emphasis added).

59
. Folke et al., “Costs of Eutrophication”; Lai and Huang, “Cost Accounting of Fish Farming.”

60
. The 2009 US total production value for fish farming was $1.17 billion, or an inflation-adjusted $1.3 billion. Rick Martin, “Review & Forecast: Fisheries and Aquaculture: Landings Up, but Farmed Production, Revenues Down,”
Sea Technology Magazine
(January 2012), accessed June 13, 2012,
http://www.sea-technology.com
.

61
. Srinivasan et al. show that that lost landings from overfishing are 23 percent of the combined total of actual and lost landings. As 0.23/(1 - 0.23) = .3 (rounded), this lost-catch wedge is equal to roughly 30 percent of actual landings. U. Thara Srinivasan et al., “Food Security Implications of Global Marine Catch Losses Due to Overfishing,”
Journal of Bioeconomics
12, no. 3 (2010): 183–200.

62
. US landings were $4.5 billion in 2010 dollars, or an inflation-adjusted $4.8 billion; hence the lost catch is worth 0.3 x $4.8 = $1.4 billion. (Landings figure: NOAA, “U.S. Domestic Seafood Landings.”)

63
. NOAA, “US Domestic Seafood Landings.”

64
. $4.8 billion in total commercial landings plus $1.3 billion in aquaculture output.

65
. Robert Costanza et al., “The Value of the World's Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital,”
Nature
387 (1997): 253–60.

66
. Worm et al., “Impacts of Biodiversity Loss on Ocean Ecosystem Services.”

1
. US farm subsidies, for example, impose huge costs on the developing world, which are beyond this book's scope. But in an article titled “How Much Does It Hurt?” researchers from the International Food Policy and Research Institute show that developing countries lose $7 billion yearly because of US subsidy policy. (Xinshen Diao, Eugenio Diaz-Bonilla, and Sherman Robinson, “How Much Does It Hurt?: The Impact of Agricultural Trade Policies on Developing Countries,” International Food Policy Research Institute [2003], accessed July 24, 2012,
http://www.ifpri.org
.) Americans' fish consumption is another activity that offloads heavy costs onto the rest of the world. Because we import the majority of the fish we eat, the estimate of $4.5 billion in externalized costs from fishing doesn't count non-US costs and thus is likely too low by a factor of three or more.

Then there are the costs that haven't been accurately measured yet but will be someday. These include health care costs related to the many other diseases known to be caused at least in part by eating animal foods, such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Crohn's, arthritis, and others. And environmental costs associated with ecosystem damage we're just beginning to understand and measure, such as Colony Collapse Disorder and disruption of marine ecosystems—which as we've seen, one estimate pegs at $21 trillion.

Finally, there are the hidden costs that don't count in conventional economics, like cruelty costs incurred by animals themselves. Future alternative approaches to economics may measure the costs to farm animals, as economic actors, of intensive confinement and other industrial practices. And future research will likely provide reason to dramatically increase the estimated health and environmental costs of animal food production. For now, the existence of these numerous additional, uncounted costs is sufficient to show that if anything, the estimate of $414 billion is conservative.

2
. Body mass index (BMI) is calculated by dividing weight in kilograms by height in meters squared, or kg/m
²
. S. Tonstad et al., “Type of Vegetarian Diet, Body Weight, and Prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes,”
Diabetes Care
32, no. 5 (2009): 791–96.

3
. Ibid., abstract.

4
. Jack Norris and Ginny Messina, “Disease Markers of Vegetarians” (2009), table 1, accessed August 19, 2012,
http://www.veganhealth.org
.

5
. W. P. Castelli, “Epidemiology of Coronary Heart Disease: the Framingham Study,”
American Journal of Medicine
76, no. 2A (1984): 4–12.

6
. Kari Hamerschlag “Meat Eaters Guide to Climate Change + Health,” Environmental Working Group (2011), 12, accessed July 29, 2012,
http://www.ewg.org
.

7
. Allison Righter, “Ditching Meat One Day a Week: What, Exactly Is the Reduced Risk of Mortality?” (2012), accessed July 29, 2012,
http://www.livablefutureblog.com
.

8
. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
Sustaining State Programs for Tobacco Control: Data Highlights 2006
(Atlanta: US Department of Health and Human Services, 2006), accessed October 26, 2011,
http://www.cdc.gov
.

9
. F. J. Chaloupka et al., “Tax, Price and Cigarette Smoking: Evidence from the Tobacco Documents and Implications for Tobacco Company Marketing Strategies,”
Tobacco Control
11 (2002): i62–i72, accessed October 26, 2011,
http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com
.

10
. Ann Boonn, “Raising Cigarette Taxes Always Increases State Revenues (and Always Reduces Smoking)” Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (2011), accessed August 6, 2012,
http://www.tobaccofreekids.org
.

11
. Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, “Raising Cigarette Taxes Reduces Smoking, Especially Among Kids (and the Cigarette Companies Know It)” (2007), accessed August 26, 2012,
http://www.tobaccofreekids.org
.

12
. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Consumption Data: Total and Per Capita Adult Yearly Consumption of Manufactured Cigarettes and Percentage Changes in Per Capita Consumption—United States, 1900–2006” (2007), accessed August 26, 2012,
http://www.cdc.gov
; National Cancer Institute, “A Snapshot of Lung Cancer: Incidence and Mortality Rate Trends” (2011), accessed August 26, 2012,
http://www.cancer.gov
.

13
. Tax Policy Center, “State and Local Tobacco Tax Revenue, Selected Years 1977–2009” (2011), accessed August 26, 2012,
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org
; Orzechowski and Walker, “The Tax Burden on Tobacco” (2009), accessed August 26, 2012,
http://www.tobaccoissues.com
.

14
. Hugh Waters et al.,
The Economics of Tobacco and Tobacco Taxation in Mexico
(Paris: International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, 2010), accessed August 31, 2012,
http://global.tobaccofreekids.org
.

15
. Audrey Jacquet, “French Sales of Tobacco Go Up in Smoke as Tax Rises Force Cigarette Buyers Abroad,”
The Independent
(July 29, 2004), accessed September 1, 2012,
http://www.independent.co.uk
.

16
. Yoree Koh, “Japanese Smokers: Going the Way of the Dodo?”
Wall Street Journal Japan
(blog), October 13, 2011,
http://blogs.wsj.com
.

17
.
See
Appendix C
,
table C1
.

18
. That is, 0.03 x 0.65 = 0.02 (rounded). The $7.4 billion in revenue is based on the retail sales figure of $251 billion reduced by 2 percent to reflect lower demand, then multiplied by the tax rate of 3 percent. Thus, .03(251 - 0.02(251)) = 7.4.

19
. Ann Boonn, “State Cigarette Excise Tax Rates and Rankings” (2011), Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, accessed August 6, 2012,
http://www.tobaccofreekids.org
.

20
. I'm not the first to propose such a tax. Philosopher and ethicist Peter Singer, for example, proposed a 50 percent tax on meat in a 2009 newspaper editorial. Peter Singer, “Make Meat-Eaters Pay: Ethicist Proposed Radical Tax, Says They're Killing Themselves and the Planet,”
New York Daily News
(October 25, 2009).

21
.
See
Appendix C
,
table C7
.

22
.
See
Appendix C
,
table C7
.

23
.
See
Appendix C
,
table C9
.

24
. Rob Bluey, “Chart of the Week: Nearly Half of All Americans Don't Pay Income Taxes,”
Heritage Network: The Foundry
(blog), February 19, 2012,
http://blog.heritage.org
.

25
.
See
chapter 1
,
table 1.1
.

26
. Spending in 2013 was $209 billion, higher than the $155 billion budget because some revenue comes from sources other than the US Treasury. US Department of Agriculture, “FY 2013 Budget Summary and Annual Performance Plan” (2012), accessed October 27, 2012,
http://www.obpa.usda.gov
.

27
.
See
Appendix C
,
table C3
.

28
. These are (using 2013 USDA budget figures): Farm Service Agency, $12.1 billion; Risk Management Agency, $9.6 billion; Research, Education, and Economics, $2.7 billion; Marketing and Regulatory Programs, $2.4 billion; and Foreign Agricultural Service, $2.1 billion. Note that this budget was prepared in 2012 and is in 2012 dollars, hence these figures require no inflation adjustment. US Department of Agriculture, “FY 2013 Budget.”