Tax Break for Vegetarians?

That is exactly with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals President Ingrid Newkirk is urging:

In a letter sent Wednesday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), PETA President Ingrid Newkirk stated, “[V]egetarians are responsible for far fewer greenhouse-gas emissions and other kinds of environmental degradation than meat-eaters.”

The letter added that vegetarians should receive a tax break “just as people who purchase a hybrid vehicle enjoy a tax break.”

Now the first question that comes to mind, of course, is, How do you verify someone is a vegetarian? Well Newkirk has an idea--make the government develop a system.

Asked how the government would certify that taxpayers are vegetarian, PETA spokesman Matt Prescott said, “I imagine that a system could be adopted whereby taxpayers could show receipts for food purchases and/or sign an affidavit attesting … that they are vegetarian. If Congress is seriously interested about rewarding people for reducing their carbon emissions, then it could develop a system to verify that people are vegetarian.”

Of course, that tax code is used by the government to incentivize all kinds of activity, including charitable giving, home ownership and other "social goods." But this one seems a little odd.

Receipts for food could be incomplete, i.e. I go to the grocery store one week and buy vegetarian. The next week I buy meat, but only submit receipts for vegetarian weeks. What then also about eating out?

See the problem is not in the attesting to being a vegetarian, but the question is how the IRS would go about proving or disproving it.