The funding that the EU allocates for advertising animal products is simply not aligned with the latest ambitions of EU strategies to tackle issues such as unhealthy diets, poor animal welfare, climate change, pollution of air, land and water and the associated decimation of biodiversity.

In February this year, the Commission published a new plan to fight cancer, which includes a commitment to encourage a ‘shift to a more plant-based diet, with less red and processed meat and other foods linked to cancer risk and more fruit and vegetables.’

Earlier, in May 2020, the Commission released its new food policy vision – the ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy, which recognised that our ‘food consumption patterns are unsustainable’, and that the EU average consumption of whole-grain cereals, fruit and vegetables, legumes and nuts ‘is insufficient.’

The EU rears and slaughters 9 billion terrestrial animals each year.[1] Insufficient legal protection of their welfare condemns billions of these sentient beings to short and brutal lives on factory farms and to suffering at slaughter. In addition, over half a billion fish spend a life of misery in underwater factory farms in the EU. Cruel methods of capture and slaughter are commonly used for farmed and wild fish.

To protect our health and our one and only planet, scientists are recommending that Europeans reduce their consumption of red meat and poultry by two thirds.

EU-funded ads should no longer incite an increased consumption of animal products. Instead, they should support plant-rich foods and thus facilitate a transition to healthier and more environmentally friendly diets. Fewer animals raised for food also means that we can more easily transition away from intensive methods of production, which cause animals tremendous suffering.

[1] Estimates based on FAO data.