Ag Outlook 11-3-2020

A group known as the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service wants lawmakers to consider taxing livestock producers and meat consumption. They claim it would serve to reduce the risk of future deadly pandemics. Their study released last month points at what they see as overconsumption of meat being a ‘driver of pandemic risk.’ They point to emergence of new pandemic strains and influenza viruses resulting from dense production of poultry and pigs in some parts of the world. The study warns future pandemics could emerge more often, spread faster, cost more and be more deadly than COVID-19 without government action to avert them.