Campaign launched to dispel misconceptions about meat and dairy products

The National Chamber of Agriculture (NAK) launched its awareness-raising campaign titled “Facts to Taste” in June this year. The initiative aims to present the importance of animal products in an open and authentic way and refute misconceptions about them. The campaign focuses on the role of meat, dairy products and eggs in a healthy diet, as well as sustainable practices for responsible animal husbandry, while highlighting the social and economic importance of agriculture. As part of this campaign, an organized visit to the Nánási Ostrich Farm in Hajdúnánás took place on December 10, where the owner, Dániel Nyakas, presented the farm, and the participating journalists baked with their own, unusual ingredients.

“In recent years, many misconceptions, half-information and extreme opinions have surfaced in our country and across Europe – often intentionally – regarding animal husbandry, meat consumption and the role of dairy products. These make bona fide consumers uncertain and also undermine the prestige of agriculture”

– said Zsolt Papp, the president of the NAK, at the event. He added:

“That is why we present the facts objectively – we will not let consumers be fooled and some people undeservedly slander animal farmers. Nor will we let meat, eggs, and dairy products be declared unhealthy. Agriculture is a value that must be taken care of, and farmers must also be helped in this fight.”

The face of the campaign is Zoltán Szécsi, a three-time Olympic water polo champion and farmer, who also shares his own athletic and family experiences with the audience. As he emphasized

“Unfortunately, often scientifically unfounded articles and TikTok videos turn consumers against consuming meat and dairy products. However, these contain truly important nutrients and are healthy when consumed in appropriate quantities. Also, as we showed last time at Remény Farm, and now at Nánási Ostrich Farm: Hungarian animal husbandry is becoming more and more modern and sustainable. Domestic meat, dairy products, and eggs are a real value, and they are also valuable in terms of content. Behind them are farmers blessed with a sense of professionalism and serious work.”

The messages of the Facts to taste! campaign have already reached a lot of people on various channels. The YouTube videos have reached 1 million views, and the social media content can boast a reach of 5 million. It is clear that there is a huge demand for authentic, understandable information on the topic of animal-based foods and animal husbandry. We received a lot of questions and comments, and the tens of thousands of interactions experienced on social media prove that we are tackling important and unavoidable issues every week. It is interesting that one of the most read articles on our website was an article presenting a world without animal husbandry, which is a good indication: many people are also concerned with the dilemmas related to sustainability, our future and food security.

We made more than twenty videos with dietitian Adrienn Szabó, in which we not only presented the most important facts, but also dealt with numerous misconceptions, clarified misunderstandings, and revealed many exciting details about the nutritional background of dairy products, meat, eggs and fish. We also took consumers behind the scenes: we filmed in a pasta factory, a dairy farm, and showed them how cheese and cottage cheese are made on a sustainably operated family farm, where everything is about quality and love for animals. We also took them to a meat processing plant, an egg factory, and several farms where regenerative, close-to-nature animal husbandry takes place – a type of farming that serves both the welfare of the animals and the preservation of the environmental balance.