Carbon tax or green stars?
At EarthMums central we have been grappling with the big problem of working out what are the best products to buy.
On the supermarket shelves right now, is no indication of a products carbon status. You can make a guess - if it's from Siberia, it's got a few food miles on it. But if it's organic, does that even it out a bit? But Siberia is cold, it's probably comes from a greenhouse. Greenhouses, they're bad aren't they? (And so your inner voice natters on...)
It's a jungle out there! So, we wondered what you thought? We think we want to be able to make informed decisions about the products we are buying at a glance. We can buy products that are good for our health (the Heart Tick) and good for the country (Buy Australia), we've already got energy ratings for whitegoods, it is imperative that we can buy as smartly as possible for the environment. But how to do that?
CARBON TAX
One answer to this is to put a tax on carbon. That way, in every step of the process, everyone would pay for their carbon use - farmers, transport companies, manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers. The price of the item would grow with each step making some things that are very energy hungry very costly. The only way companies could keep the price down would be to try to find greener options like organic farming, efficient greener transport and manufacturers who use green energy.
It would certainly make a mum's job easier. You just buy the cheapest item. It also means that everyone is a part of the solution, not just a group of conscientious consumers. And it has an impact on everything we buy, from coffee to cars. Nothing would escape a carbon tax.
But it is another bloody tax. Australian low and middle income earners have the highest effective tax rates in the world. Australian businesses have the third highest tax rate in the world.
Ideally, the tax would replace all other taxes. In theory, this is one of the fairest ways to tax because everyone pays. The more you spend, the more you pay, so the richer you are, the more you pay. The issues are complex, you can check some of them out here, and it's radical and would have repercussions (like increased savings) but it would work.
But most probably what would happen is that it would be integrated into what is already considered one of the most complicated tax system in the world. And, as recent history showed us with the GST, it'll probably end up being dumped on top of everything else and make the paperwork burden on small business even more horrendous.
So, if EarthMums pushed for a carbon tax, we would have to make it clear at every turn what we wanted from that tax.
GREEN STAR SYSTEM
Another way round it would be to develop a food labelling system for carbon, similar to the one Jane R pointed out which the British Government is working out now with Tescos and Marks and Spencer.
They have started with a label that is similar to the one we have now showing the nutritional value. It's complicated and not without it's problems. For example, they haven't included the life of the product after it leaves the store. That means that an eco lightbulb would have a worse rating than a normal light bulb, which is clearly ridiculous, since in the life of a normal lightbulb you use the same amount of energy as you would driving a Prius across Australia. Over their lifespan, eco bulbs are much much better. So, the system needs some tweaking.
It also requires a lot of effort for the consumer. Reading tiny print on the backs of every single brand of tinned tomatoes is not my idea of a big day out. So we were kind of thinking that a better way to go would be to distill that information down into a star system alongside the price of the product. You could do this in a few ways. You could set up an independent body to oversee the process (like the Heart Foundation does for the tick). Or the supermarkets could make it mandatory that each product on their shelves applies for a rating through a system that they set up. Or the Government could set up a system.
What do you think? Should EarthMums push for a carbon tax, or should we make a big noise about food labelling? Our next campaign will be based on the results of this survey and your comments, so let us know what you think.
Should EarthMums back a carbon tax or a green star system? - VOTE NOW