Three approaches to reduce Swedish beef consumption - Effects on greenhouse gas emissions and consumer health

Abstract

This study estimated and compared the effect of three mitigation approaches on greenhouse gas emissions from Swedish beef consumption. In addition, we looked at the effect on the compliance with the recommended intake of red and processed meat. The chosen approaches were a public procurement change, a reduction of subsidies on beef and a consumer tax. The effect of public procurement change was quantified by estimating the amount of beef consumed at preschools, schools and hospitals. The subsidy approach was limited to the cattle support and the effect was quantified with the use of a supply response model, estimated with OLS regression. Finally, the effect of the tax approach was based on price elasticity estimates available in the literature. We found that a tax of 24.29 per cent would result in a 13.07 per cent decrease of greenhouse gas emissions from Swedish beef consumption, compared to 3.37 per cent with a full cattle support removal and 3.55 per cent with a full removal of beef in preschools, schools and hospitals. We concluded that all of these approaches could be valuable political tools to mitigate GHG emissions, while none of the approaches caused a consumption in line with the health recommendation.