Accompanied by the hashtag # MenosCarneMásVida, the Minister of Consumption

Alberto Garzón

has launched a campaign against the "excessive consumption of meat" in Spain and has once again targeted the livestock industry, whom he accuses of causing high emissions of greenhouse gases. greenhouse.

Specifically, Garzón assures that the

14.5% of the total of these CO2 emissions during a year come especially from the "macro-farms"

and he complains that "for us to have 1 kilo of beef, 15,000 liters of water are required."

It is not the first time that the government has pilloried the meat sector.

This past May, the President of the Government himself,

Pedro Sánchez

, during the presentation of the plan 'Spain 2050. Fundamentals and proposals for a National Long-Term Strategy', already advocated drastically reducing the "excessive intake of meat" of origin animal in the coming years and accused the sector of being one of the main responsible for climate change.

The campaign promoted by the minister this Wednesday includes a six-minute video on his Twitter profile in which he assures that he is "concerned about the health of our fellow citizens and the health of our planet" although he clarifies that he does not intend to "throw a fight anyone "but to reflect before the problem becomes chronic. In addition, he insists that it is not a matter of stopping barbecues with family or friends, although he simply recommends "not doing them regularly" and trying to include other types of more ecological products in our daily diet.

"Without a planet we have no life, we have no wages and we have no economy. And we are charging it. In one of the parts in which we are charging it we have a direct impact. We can change our diet and improve the state of the planet," he explains Garzón in the video to warn that the flatulence of cows and the feces of pigs and their feed already produce more pollution than cars. In this sense, he explains that "if we reduced meat consumption to the levels recommended by science, 50% of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with food would be avoided. 20% of premature deaths."

However, and according to the data of the Ministry of Ecological Transition, in its report on CO2 emissions in 2020, the main sector that contributes to emissions is Transport (cars, buses or airplanes) with 27%, with almost the double that of agriculture (4.9%) and livestock (9.1%) combined;

furthermore, Industry was responsible for 21%;

the production of electrical energy 10.3%, and the generation of waste, 5%.

CONSUMPTION TRIPPED

Garzón regrets that in recent years "meat production has exploded" and states that "in Spain 7.6 million tons of meat are produced every year, resulting from the slaughter of

70 million animals

, pigs, cows, sheep , goats, horses, birds ... ", an amount, according to their assessment, disproportionate when the amount recommended by the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition is between 200 and 500 grams per week. However, he assures that Spaniards consume on average more than one kilo, therefore, more than double the recommended amount, although in an initial tweet - later deleted - it amounted to 2 kilos per Spaniard every seven days.

The minister emphasizes, above all, the excessive consumption of red meat, as the

World Health Organization

(WHO)

warns about its risk

, which can lead to heart attacks, diabetes and other types of diseases.

In addition, science has confirmed that high-fat diets cause more deaths than those caused by alcohol, tobacco or drugs, as he recalled.

REACTIONS

The meat sector in Spain has shown its "indignation" with the minister's campaign. The industry considers the data to be false and laments the damage and discredit against the sector without scientific basis or rigor. "Enough of so much gratuitous attack on a sector that also decontaminates," complained

Pedro Barato

, president of Asaja Nacional. Meanwhile, the UPA secretary of livestock,

Román Santalla

, calls Garzón's campaign "harmful to the rural environment, irresponsible and based on untrue information and not applicable to our model" while reminding him that "the agriculture and livestock of our family farms have continued to produce food during the pandemic and there has been a historic reduction in emissions.Keep it in mind".

Pedro Barato criticizes that Minister Garzón once again attacks the Spanish productive sector "and mixes consumption, the Mediterranean diet, and data in this campaign. Thus, showing a great ignorance of what Spanish livestock is". In this sense, Barato clarifies that the emissions produced by Spanish livestock are 9%, but remember that it also serves to decontaminate through its productive sector, such as woody crops, for example. "Others pollute much more," he complains. Finally, the president of Asaja asks "please" the minister to "stop attacking gratuitously a sector that has given everything for this country, which are farmers and ranchers."

Livestock in Spain is made up of around 180,000 livestock professionals, most of them accompanied by their families in their daily work, who

directly contribute 18,500 million

to the Spanish economy

each year

, an amount that increases to 45,300 million if it encompasses the entire meat industry.

From the labor point of view, it

employs more than two million people

(more than 500,000 directly from livestock) and another 97,000 workers belonging to the meat industries and another 75,000 in the meat retail trade.

The turnover of the sector represents 2.4% of the total Spanish GDP.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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