David Pimentel, a professor of ecology and agricultural science at Cornell University believes agriculture will become more sustainable when foods that cost society the most cost the most, and when foods that contribute to society the 
most cost the least. He advocates taxing foods with the worst environmental impact.
“If one chooses to eat high-impact food, one should pay the full costs of such a choice,” he says in the book he co-edited and co-authored, Ecological Integrity: Integrating Environment, Conservation, and Health, (Island Press, 2000).
High impact foods require the most resources to produce, or result in the most environmental degradation. Foods like beef and pork would cost the most and legumes, grains, vegetables, starch crops, fruits, and nuts would cost the least.
The 104 million cattle in the U.S., are the largest users of grain. It takes 535,000 gallons of water to grow one acre of corn to feed cattle. And it takes seven pounds of feed to produce one pound of beef.
While people in Europe and the U.S. are eating lower on the food chain, developing countries are increasing consumption of beef and pork. U.S. beef consumption, for example, has dropped from its peak of 95 pounds per person a year in 1976 to 65 pounds now. It’s dropping faster in Europe. China’s pork consumption jumped 14 percent in 1995 alone.
The authors call on international aid agencies to phase out investments in intensive livestock production in Third World countries, “especially grain-fed livestock, and leave it to the private sector.” Instead, they “should ensure that good economics prevail, including accounting for full environmental and social costs.”
OECD Environmental Reports
The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) in co-operation with Eurostat and the International Energy Agency developed a database on environmental taxes in OECD countries. It includes types of taxes, revenues, tax exemptions and other related issues. http://www.oecd.org/env/policies/taxes/
The OECD Environmental Report on Indicators for Agriculture is a 410-page report that monitors recent trends in the environmental performance of agriculture across OECD countries.
http://www.oecd.org/agr/env/indicators.htm
kevin.parris@oecd.org
New Organic Standards Journal
If you need to keep up with the international organic standards, certification and regulations, the new journal, “The Organic Standard” might be for you. Gunnar Rundgren of Grolink AB produces the monthly electronic publication in Sweden. [sorry this link is no longer available]
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