{"id":18819,"date":"2014-01-14T02:10:55","date_gmt":"2014-01-14T00:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?guid=158b9f2fce3228f3f3c4deee0c6fadc5"},"modified":"2014-01-13T15:15:39","modified_gmt":"2014-01-13T13:15:39","slug":"meat-atlas-sheds-light-hidden-costs-beef-pigmeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/meat-atlas-sheds-light-hidden-costs-beef-pigmeat\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Meat Atlas’ sheds light on hidden costs of beef, pigmeat"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The\u00a0report<\/a>, published by the environmental NGO Friends of the Earth Europe and German green think tank Heinrich\u00a0B\u00f6ll\u00a0Foundation, attempts to map the hidden costs behind people\u2019s rampant consumption of meat across the globe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Each European currently consumes about 925 calories worth of meat each day, the report says. The figure in the world\u2019s least developed countries is just 178 calories of meat per person, raising the prospect of ever greater levels of meat production as those economies develop.<\/p>\n

All that production comes at a cost, which is not necessarily reflected in the end-price of the product, the NGOs say. Members of the\u00a0Organisation\u00a0for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a club of 34 of the world\u2019s richest countries, spent $18 billion (\u20ac13 billion) on direct support of the beef and veal industry, $7.3 billion (\u20ac5.4 billion) on\u00a0pigmeat\u00a0and $6.5 billion (\u20ac4.7 billion) on poultry in 2012.<\/p>\n

Most of this funding goes towards support of large-scale intensive farms, the report says, which are viewed as having an integral role to play in feeding rising populations.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0Magda\u00a0Stoczkiewicz, the director of Friends of the Earth Europe, thinks that the many hidden costs associated with intensive agriculture mean that it has a shelf life.\u00a0\u201cThe current\u00a0industrialised\u00a0and corporate-led system is doomed to fail. We need a radical overhaul of food and farming if we want to feed a growing world population without destroying the planet,” she says in the report.<\/p>\n

Cost burdens<\/strong><\/p>\n

To the campaigners, all the costs associated with meat production need to be taken into account, as EU policymakers look to shape meat production in the 28-country bloc, and when setting prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe price tag on a package of meat does not reflect the true cost of producing the contents: the hidden costs to the environment and the taxpayer are much higher,\u201d the report says. \u201cIf these costs are included, livestock raising would probably make a loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe European Union offers subsidies for fodder crops and supports up to 40 percent of the cost of investing in new animal housing\u201d, the reports says.<\/p>\n

Heavily\u00a0industrialised\u00a0meat production may\u00a0also saddle taxpayers with other burdens.\u00a0“They pay for the costs of transport infrastructure, such as ports needed to handle the feed trade. In many countries, meat is subject to a reduced level of value added tax,” the report says.<\/p>\n

CAP boosts ‘greening’ but still protects larger farms<\/strong><\/p>\n

The European Commission has attempted to move towards more small-scale, \u201cgreener\u201d livestock farming, directing more payments towards environmentally-friendly practices such as land set-asides and grazing in its reform of the\u00a0Common Agricultural Policy, agreed<\/a>\u00a0at the end of last year.<\/p>\n

To the \u2018Atlas\u2019 authors, the move does not go far enough.\u00a0\u201cFirst, the European Commission could stop spending money to support the construction of intensive fattening houses,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead it should support small and medium enterprises in difficult locations that keep their animals in pasture for much of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meat producers have tended to complain more about declining production and policy support, required to sustain the economically “fragile”\u00a0sector. “Considering the issue of the food security, the reform is a missed opportunity.\u00a0The EU beef and sheep meat industry is facing a severe decline in production,”\u00a0Jean-Luc\u00a0M\u00e9riaux, secretary\u00a0general of the\u00a0The European Livestock And Meat Trading Union, told\u00a0EurActiv.<\/p>\n

\u2018Our kind of lifestyles\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

As agricultural companies attempt to drive prices down the price of meat production, the industry has continually looked for low-cost solutions, including ways to keep worker\u00a0wages to a minimum. The authors say that these low wages across the production chain, particularly in abattoirs, can be considered a subsidy \u201cbecause companies can pay so little only if the state does not impose a statutory minimum wage\u201d.<\/p>\n

Developing countries with little money to spend on livestock production fall back on cheap\u00a0labour\u00a0with \u201cslave-like\u201d conditions to keep the market happy.<\/p>\n

\u201cFew countries can\u00a0subsidise\u00a0in this way. Instead, they tend to support them through laws that permit the exploitation of people and the environment,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n

While demand for meat has stagnated in Europe and the United States, it is on the rise in Asia, with an expected 80% increase by 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople in other countries want our kind of lifestyles [with high meat consumption],\u201d said Adrian\u00a0Bebb, senior food campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe, said at the report\u2019s launch in Brussels yesterday (9 January). \u201cBut we\u2019ve only got one planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

A reduction in meat consumption in the western world and a push for more sustainable livestock farming are part of the solution, the report’s authors said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile governments in the developed world have to radically change course and struggle against the power of the agricultural lobby, developing countries can avoid repeating the mistakes made elsewhere,\u201d said Barbara\u00a0Unm\u00fc\u00dfig, the president of the Heinrich\u00a0B\u00f6ll\u00a0Foundation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they know about the effects of intensive meat production, they can plan for a future-oriented form of production that is socially, ethically and environmentally responsible,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Europeans need to more aware of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[],"supplier":[2317,5585,228,6335,295,6336],"class_list":["post-18819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","supplier-european-commission","supplier-european-union","supplier-friends-of-the-earth-europe","supplier-heinrich-boll-foundation","supplier-organisation-for-economic-co-operation-and-development-oecd","supplier-the-european-livestock-and-meat-trading-union"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18819\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18819"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=18819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}