"for absolutely no reason"

I thought manufacturing meat was destroying the planet?

The whole point of the idea is to stop the supply side isn't it and the price of meat remains at whatever level the market thinks - the meat tokens are traded separately. It's simply that there would be a centrally planned amount of meat produced and it would go to those willing to pay the most for it. The tokens that everyone gets are designed to sweeten the deal for those who decide not to eat meat.

Sure you can eat meat, but your quota is worth £4000 per year to someone.

I'm not saying cap and trade has worked well for fossil fuels, but this is effectively carbon offsetting done in a better way.

Unfortunately I'm not certain that capitalism has solved the problems we are going to face over the next century if we want to survive. If we leave things to the market completely all this cheap oil will ruin the environment. Needs to be taxed.