Meat advertising is banned in a Dutch city as part of the fight against climate change

By: STA Date: 2022. 09. 06. 07:10

For the first time in the world, the advertising of meat products is banned in Haarlem in the Netherlands, after the municipality classified meat as one of the products contributing to the climate crisis.

According to some opinions, the municipality went too far (Photo: Pixabay)

The list prohibiting the public advertising of products harmful to the environment was finalized last week in Haarlem, but the ban will only be implemented from 2024, in order to give time to comply with the advertising contracts that have already been concluded, reports the British newspaper The Guardian on its website.

Meat was lumped in with fossil fuel and aviation

In the city of about 160,000 inhabitants, located west of Amsterdam, it will be forbidden to advertise air vacations, fossil fuels and cars using fossil fuels in addition to meat – for example on buses, bus stops or public area projectors. Amsterdam, The Hague and Leiden have already banned the advertising of flights, petrol cars and fossil fuels, but they have not gone so far as to add meat products to the banned list. – We cannot tell people that there is a climate crisis and encourage them to buy products that are part of the problem. – the proponent of the decree, Green Party member Ziggy Klazes, justified the ban. For the time being, even the members of the city council do not know whether sustainably produced meat products will be allowed to be advertised. According to meat industry companies, the municipality is going too far when “telling people what is best for them”.

According to recent research, food production is responsible for a third of the harmful emissions that cause global warming, within which the production of meat involves twice as many emissions as plant foods. According to a Greenpeace research, the current 82 kilograms of meat consumption per capita in the European Union should be reduced to 24 kilograms in order for the EU to reach its set goal and become carbon neutral by 2050. The Netherlands, where the annual average meat consumption per capita is 75.8 kilograms, is the EU’s main meat exporter.

MTI