‘The Netherlands Meat Country, where tastes differ’. With that slogan, the meat industry hopes to get meat out of the dark corner. By telling ‘the honest story’ about animal welfare, health and sustainability, Nederland Vleesland hopes that consumers will not feel guilty if they eat meat.
It’s a striking campaign, as it seems to go against current trends and science. Think of the attention paid to animal suffering in the food industry, the risks of eating meat for our health or the influence of meat production on the climate.
Numbers
The campaign has not started because we are massively eating less meat. In fact: meat consumption has been reduced for several years more or less stable. About twenty percent of the Dutch eat meat every day, three quarters do not eat every day and five percent eat vegetarian.
On average, we eat about 100 grams of meat per day. Especially hamburgers, slavinken, sausages and meatballs, so-called composite products, are popular. About 620 million animals are slaughtered every year to meet the demand for meat
What do you think, does the meat industry have too negative an image? Or are we on the right track to a society in which meat consumption is no longer so self-evident?