Greens ask Germans to give meat cold shoulder in election run-up
Print Edition
Germany’s election campaign has veered into a debate about eating habits after the ecologist Green party called for a weekly “Veggie Day” in work canteens, drawing ire and ridicule.
With the barbecue season in full swing, the meat-free proposal by the opposition Greens was skewered across the political spectrum, with one leading politician asking ‘What’s next? Green-Shirt Day?’
But the Greens argue that reducing meat consumption — 60 kilos on average in Germany a year — would have health benefits in a country known for its love of sausages, as well as an upside for animal protection and climate change.
Their manifesto for the September 22 elections calls for public cafeterias to take on a “trailblazing” role. “Offerings of vegetarian and vegan meals and a ‘Veggie Day’ are to become the norm,” it states.
“One doesn’t have to eat two burgers every day,” one of the Greens’ leading election candidates Katrin Goering-Eckardt said on Monday, as scientists in London presented the world’s first lab-grown beef burger.
So far topics such as tax increases, minimum wage, childcare and the euro have dominated an election run-up in which Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives have maintained a comfortable lead.
However, with Germany’s electoral system based on coalition-building, smaller parties have kingmaker potential and the Greens are currently set to stick with their traditional partners, the embattled centre-left Social Democrats.
Michael Fuchs, deputy chairman of the conservatives group in parliament, railed against the notion of having an individual decision taken away.
“Bit by bit, according to their (the Greens’) image of society, the state assumes more and more functions, decrees more and more bans,” he said in a statement.
“What a presumptuous plan!” scoffed mass circulation Bild newspaper yesterday. “Whoever wants responsible citizens must also treat them that way. And must not constantly try to re-educate them.”
It quoted the chancellor candidate for the pro-business Free Democrats, Rainer Bruederle, as questioning: “What’s coming next; Jute-Day, Bike Day, Green-Shirt Day?”
“People are clever enough to decide themselves when they eat meat and vegetables and when not,” he added.
A spokesman for Consumer Affairs Minister Ilse Aigner told reporters on Monday that the trend in recent years in Germany had shown less meat was being eaten, but he said that a “balanced” diet was what was called for.
“Meat is also part of that,” he said.
Around eight million people, or about 10 percent of the population in Germany, are meat-free, according to figures by the Vegetarian Federation of Germany.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 娌狪CP璇侊細娌狪CP澶05050403鍙-1
- |
- 浜掕仈缃戞柊闂讳俊鎭湇鍔¤鍙瘉锛31120180004
- |
- 缃戠粶瑙嗗惉璁稿彲璇侊細0909346
- |
- 骞挎挱鐢佃鑺傜洰鍒朵綔璁稿彲璇侊細娌瓧绗354鍙
- |
- 澧炲肩數淇′笟鍔＄粡钀ヨ鍙瘉锛氭勃B2-20120012
Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
