As communities, businesses, schools and others across the UK start a week-long celebration of all things vegetarian, a new report released in May reveals that more than £140 million a year is spent encouraging people to eat more meat.
The government recently advised people to cut down on meat for their own health and environmentalists are in broad agreement that cutting meat consumption would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, so it’s not just vegetarians who will be shocked by the figures unveiled today.
The study was commissioned by the Vegetarian Society to mark the start of National Vegetarian Week. It was carried out by the Ethical Consumer Research Association and found that in 2009 (the most recent year for which figures were available) more than £140 million was spent on the promotion of meat and meat products in the UK, primarily on the commercial advertising of branded products.
Dr Jon Green, Chief Executive Officer at the Vegetarian Society said, “Food is big business so it’s easy to get blasé about big numbers, but £140million is a huge amount of money and we think it’s important for the public to realise just how much is being spent trying to persuade them to keep eating meat. Everyone can enjoy great vegetarian food and if that kind of money was devoted to developing and promoting meat-free foods, the world would be a much better place, for people, for the environment and, of course, for the animals.”
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