More than three quarters of EU funding for food promotion in Ireland goes towards meat and dairy projects, according to environmental campaigners.
Greenpeace said that across the EU 32 per cent of funding for the promotion of member states’ farmed produce goes towards projects exclusively promoting meat and dairy. In Ireland, the figure is 78 per cent.
“Science tells us that to restore nature, avoid the worst of climate breakdown and protect public health, we must produce and consume much less meat and dairy. The EU’s promotional programme is actively pushing consumption in the wrong direction,” it said.
Organisations applying for the fund are required to provide some co-financing of the campaigns while the EU covers 70 to 80 per cent of the costs. National governments can not co-finance the campaigns after a review in 2014 said it leads to a “distortion of competition”.
Greenpeace’s Marketing Meat report covers projects granted EU funding from 2016 to 2019. During this period, the only Irish applicant for funding was Bord Bia, the state agency.
Advertisement
Using the European Commission’s published list of approved programmes, the report found that Ireland used nearly €10.5 million, or 78 per cent of the total amount of funding granted, for several projects promoting meat and dairy products.
€1.4 million, or 11 per cent of funding, went towards the promotion of vegetables as part of a mushroom project by Bord Bia in 2017. None of the projects in Ireland from 2016 to 2019 promoted organic produce.
Bord Bia’s projects promoting meat ranged from pork, poultry, beef, sheep and goat produce. The target countries for the projects included the UK, China, Mexico, Philippines, and South Korea. Last year, Bord Bia’s proposed project for promoting beef with Italy and Germany as target countries was rejected by the commission. Campaigns in Denmark, Germany, Italy, Austria, Poland, Spain, France and Ireland, jointly cover almost two thirds of the projects approved between 2016 and 2019 with France, Italy and Spain receiving the most funding.
France received over €125 million from 2016 to 2019, with 54 per cent going toward meat and dairy, 14 per cent going toward fruit and vegetables, and 4 per cent towards campaigns for organic produce. Italy received over €124 million with 36 per cent going towards meat and dairy, 17 per cent towards fruit and vegetable, and 6 per cent of funding went towards organic produce. Spain was granted over €90 million with 33 per cent going towards meat and dairy, 26 per cent towards fruit and vegetable, and no funding went towards promoting organic produce.
The report calls for the EU to “move beyond lip service” and set targets for the reduction of meat and dairy production in the EU. “Meat and dairy consumption should be reduced by at least 70 per cent by 2030 and 80 per cent by 2050 compared to current levels,” it said.
Advertisement
Greenpeace said the EU should aim to increase funding to promote more fruit, vegetables and plant-based diets. It added funds should go to encourage farmers to transition away from industrial meat, dairy and egg production.
The government’s climate action plan said that it aims to support business models for lower carbon intensity farming including organic production by 2030 and it aims to have a carbon neutral agriculture sector by 2050. Agriculture makes up 32 per cent of emissions from sectors in Ireland compared with just 11 per cent in the rest of Europe.