GERMANY, February 24, 2017 (treehugger.com): Germany’s environment minister Barbara Hendricks announced earlier this week that meat and fish would no longer be served at official functions held by the Ministry of the Environment. Because animal agriculture creates such a toll on the environment, and plays a significant role in climate change and degradation of water and soil, Hendricks argues that the German government needs to do the responsible thing: “We’re not telling anyone what they should eat. But we want to set a good example for climate protection, because vegetarian food is more climate-friendly than meat and fish.”
In a country where meaty foods like bratwurst, schnitzel, and pork knuckles are synonymous with cultural identity, this announcement has, not surprisingly, created quite a stir. It’s made worse by the fact that Hendricks is a member of the Social Democrats party (SPD), which is currently ahead of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) in the polls – and an election is just a few months away. Christian Schmidt, minister of agriculture, is highly critical of the decision.
It will certainly be interesting to see how this plays out in the upcoming months. Despite widespread support for Schmidt’s anti-vegetarian labeling proposals, vegetarianism and veganism in Germany has grown exponentially in recent years. Demand for meat-free products went up by 100 percent between 2010 and 2015, while demand for meat products fell by 10 percent in the same period. The global attitude toward meat is shifting, whether Merkel’s party likes it or not.