Spain is not a country for semi-soft vegetarians. Anyone who doesn’t want an iron will never stick to an animal-friendly diet: in an average tapas restaurant there isn’t much more vegetarian on the menu than baked potatoes or a mushroom filled with cheese. The rest is fish or meat, a lot of meat.
Spain is the largest carnivore in Europe: according to figures from the United Nations, the Spaniard eats almost two kilograms of meat a week, which ends up on the plate as chorizo sausage or stewed oxtail.
His country’s meat eating has long been ‘a taboo’, Alberto Garzón (36), the consumer minister, told the British newspaper just after Christmas. The Guardian. The Spanish government maintains a lower estimate of the average meat intake (about a kilo per week), but that too is twice as much as the national nutrition authority recommends as the maximum amount.
Environmental pollution
And so the meat taboo has to end, said Garzón, a proud communist and minister on behalf of Unidas Podemos, the smaller of the two left-wing coalition partners. Not only are all those ham croquettes bad for public health, meat production also leads to environmental pollution and global warming. The mega stables, which have also sprung up like mushrooms in Spain, had to suffer in particular. “They pollute the soil, they pollute the water and then they export this poor quality meat from abused animals.”
What followed was a popular speech that must have exceeded Garzón’s wildest expectations of the interview. Meat producers, right-wing politicians and newspapers of the same political affiliation tumbled over each other to condemn him. Especially the statement about the undersized meat stuck.
Garzón cannot stay a day longer in the Moncloa (the government palace, red.) stay,” wrote daily newspaper El Mundo in a scathing commentary. He would not only ‘shave pillory’ the all-important livestock industry, but also ‘tarnish the image of Spain abroad’ with his texts in a British newspaper.
farmer protector
The interview was a belated Christmas present for the right-wing Partido Popular. Provincial elections will be held in February in Castile and León, northwest of Madrid and one of the regions known for its overcrowded livestock. The incumbent PP president set himself up as a farmer’s protector. “They will find us against them in the defense of the men and women of the countryside,” he tweeted. And Garzon? He had to swallow his words or resign.
The minister did neither, not even when his own government withdrew its hands from him. Garzón had said his words “in a personal capacity,” a spokesman said, calling the Spanish meat “of the highest quality.” That Garzón had not said that all meat produced in Spain is bad, but only that of the mega stables, was lost in the media storm.
Scarce words of support could be read on the opinion page of the left-wing online medium elDiario.es. Garzón had made “irrefutable” statements, one columnist wrote, “supported by much of the international scientific community.” A more tactful minister would not have mentioned ‘poor quality meat’. “But in essence, Garzón is not mistaken: things must indeed change.”
It is little consolation for the minister, who has served his own supporters concerned about the climate excellently, but has to continue in government like a drunken game. He has unmistakably demonstrated one thing: the Spanish meat taboo exists.
Dion Mebius is a correspondent in Spain.