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Berlin (dpa) - The good news from the point of view of doctors and animal rights activists first: In Germany, every consumer has been eating less and less meat on average for years - and substitute products are booming.
According to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, the estimated per capita consumption in 2019 was 59.5 kilograms per inhabitant and thus 2.5 percent below the value of the previous year.
"In 2013 it was about 66 kilos per head," said Barbara Unmüßig from the board of the Heinrich Böll Foundation on Wednesday.
A real “meat turnaround” has not been initiated, she criticized in Berlin when presenting the current “meat atlas”.
In it, the Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND) and the Foundation regularly collect data and facts about animals as food.
Accordingly, consumer behavior in Germany does little to slow down global meat production - with serious consequences for the environment, animals and, last but not least, for those working in the meat industry.
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“Worldwide meat consumption has more than doubled in the past 20 years and reached 320 million tons in 2018,” the authors write in the report, justifying this with the growing population and rising incomes, especially in fast-growing emerging countries.
"Meat consumption will possibly grow by another 13 percent by 2028."
According to the calculations, it would then be 360 million tons - 40 million more than in 2018.
The effects can also be observed in Germany: protesting farmers, the working conditions in slaughterhouses and secretly filmed videos showing animal cruelty in companies.
For BUND board member Olaf Bandt, these are also symptoms of a failed EU agricultural policy, which has been consistently geared towards the world market in recent years and decades.
"The result is a race to the bottom for the worst social and environmental standards, which runs consistently," he said on Wednesday.
"The cheap meat model is just not the greatest luck, as we are being advertised," said the Green Bundestag member Renate Künast.
"The meat industry works today through the exploitation of people, animals and nature."
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Consumers can therefore play a small part in changing that.
Meat substitute products made from soy or wheat proteins are already booming in Germany: In 2019, according to the “Meat Atlas”, around 266,000 tons of them were sold in Germany - a record high.
That corresponded to an annual turnover of 273 million euros.
For comparison: According to the report, 40.1 billion euros were turned over in the same period with meat and sausage.
"The market for meat substitute products is developing more dynamically than ever before," the authors write.
The conventional meat industry has long since jumped on the trend.
"In July 2020, the manufacturer Rügenwalder Mühle made more sales for the first time with vegan and vegetarian meat alternatives than with classic cold cuts or tea sausages," it continues.
Above all, however, politicians have a duty.
"We have to raise the minimum standards for animal husbandry in Germany and Europe significantly," demanded Bandt.
He also sees an enforcement deficit in existing regulations.
According to his information, animal owners and butchers are already violating the law in many places.
That is not controlled enough.
"Implementing the existing laws would help to end the misery."
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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210106-99-918572 / 2
BUND press releases
Meat Atlas 2021
Communication from the BMEL
Destatis information on German meat production in the 1st half of 2020