A Dutch city has sparked fury among farmers after it decided to ban all meat advertising, citing the contribution of meat production towards climate change.
From 2024, the city of Haarlem in the northwest of the country will ban all public advertisements of meat, such as on buses, bus shelters and public hoardings. It is the first city in the world to take such a radical step against meat advertising.
The ban aims to reduce people’s urge to buy meat and therefore cut meat consumption.
See also: Dutch farmer protests derail emissions plan
Ziggy Klazes, a councillor from the left-wing GroenLinks party, which introduced the motion, said the ban would apply only to certain types of meat.
She told the Australian radio station 3AW that the ban would extend to the “big meat industry”.
“We’re allowed to ban product groups from advertisement, but we’re not allowed to ban companies,” she said. “So that will be tricky, whether we can ban McDonald’s burgers. But we can definitely ban, I think, meat from the supermarket that’s made by the bio industry.”
The UN estimates that meat production is responsible for about 15% of total greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) across the globe.
According to Greenpeace, EU member states will have to reduce their meat consumption by more than two-thirds if the bloc is to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Farmer fury
The advertising ban in Haarlem, a city of 160,000 people, has caused uproar among Dutch farmers. They insist it goes too far and that people should be allowed to decide for themselves what they choose to eat.
Data from the Netherlands government suggests that about 95% of its citizens eat meat, with 20% eating it every day.
Neighbouring cities such as Amsterdam and The Hague have already banned public adverts for air travel, petrol-driven cars and fossil fuels.
News of the ban comes as farmers across the Netherlands have been staging months of protests against government plans to cut nitrogen emissions to meet environmental targets.
