European elections 2024: Whoever votes makes the difference! – Your vote for nutrition
ProVeg Germany
European elections 2024: Whoever votes makes the difference!
Your voice for nutrition
Berlin, 31.05.2024
The European elections on June 9, 2024 are about nothing less than our food system and a sustainable future – from the European school milk program to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the Farm to Fork strategy. This year, a particularly large number of young people will be able to cast their votes. ProVeg says: Go vote, the result concerns you! However, undecided voters who care about nutrition should pay attention to two things, according to the nutrition organization.
The European Parliament elections will take place in Germany on June 9, 2024. The Federal Statistical Office estimates that there are around 65 million people eligible to vote in Germany.1 For the first time, over a million young people will also be able to take part in an election: the voting age has been lowered to 16.2 96 of the 720 MEPs are running in this country. The votes from Germany can therefore make a decisive difference.
What do the European elections have to do with nutrition?
Nutrition, agriculture and sustainability are largely European issues. Voices from Germany will influence the EU school milk programme, the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy, i.e. agricultural subsidies, and the European Green Deal including the Farm to Fork strategy. “Those who vote in the European elections can help shape our food system in the long term – this is an opportunity that we should all take advantage of!”the appeal from ProVeg Managing Director Matthias Rohra.
The Green Deal aims to make the European Union (EU) climate neutral by 2050. In Germany alone, almost 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture are attributable to livestock farming.3 According to a recent study, more than 80 percent of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy supports emission-intensive animal products.4 5 The Farm to Fork nutrition strategy therefore promotes plant-based protein sources from European production. “The consumption of plant milk has become widely established in the EU. Together with the Decline in meat consumption and livestock numbers in Germany A hopeful picture for the future is emerging. What is needed now is a suitable political framework that allows new innovations and offers farmers viable prospects.”emphasizes Rohra.
What do the parties say about nutrition issues?
Anyone who wants to find out about the parties’ positions on nutrition policy can find what they are looking for at the European Vegetarian Union (EVU), for example. The EVU has compiled so-called election test stones – responses from more than 50 parties across Europe on plant-based topics.6 The Climate Alliance Germany also offers useful information: It has analyzed the climate policy goals of the parliamentary groups in the Bundestag and prepared them in a similar way to the Wahl-O-Mat of the Federal Agency for Civic Education.7 ProVeg is both a member of the EVU and part of the Climate Alliance Germany.
What does a responsible food policy require?
In principle, all parties that are committed to the rule of law and the European idea can make a decisive difference. However, two things are essential for a forward-looking nutrition policy: decisions that affect the nutrition of all of us – from children in daycare to elderly people in hospital – must firstly be scientifically sound and therefore fact-based. Secondly, our food system is a European market with transnational structures. An exclusively national perspective cannot do justice to the topic of nutrition. Matthias Rohra sums it up: “Those who rely on a fact-based, European-oriented food policy are choosing diversity on their plates.”
The EU Member States have a lot to gain: With its large market for alternative proteins8, Europe is currently developing into a centre of innovation – and could emerge as a winner from the transformation process in the food system. “The greater the diversity of our protein supply, the more sustainable jobs we will gain”says Rohra in advance, “in other words: the more opportunities for young people in Europe.”
Sources
1 The Federal Returning Officer (2024): European elections 2024: Up to 64.9 million eligible voters in Germany, published on 21 February 2024. Online at: https://www.bundeswahlleiterin.de/info/presse/mitteilungen/europawahl-2024/06_24_wahlberechtigte.html
2 Tagesschau (2024): Voting for the first time at 16, updated on May 15, 2024. Online at: https://www.tagesschau.de/europawahl/wahl/wahlalter-16-100.html
3 Federal Environment Agency (2024): Agriculture’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. Online at: https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/daten/land-forstwirtschaft/beitrag-der-landwirtschaft-zu-den-treibhausgas
4 Kortleve, AJ, JM Mogollón, H. Harwatt et al. (2024): Over 80% of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy supports emissions-intensive animal products. In: Nature Food 5(4), 288–292. Doi:10.1038/s43016-024-00949-4
5 Kortleve, AJ, JM Mogollón, H. Harwatt et al. (2024): Over 80% of the EU’s farming subsidies support emissions-intensive animal products – new study. The Conversation. Online at: https://theconversation.com/over-80-of-the-eus-farming-subsidies-support-emissions-intensive-animal-products-new-study-226853
6 European Vegetarian Union (2024): Plant-Based Politics: the 2024 EU Election Guide, published on 15 May 2024. Online at: https://www.euroveg.eu/plant-based-politics-guide/
7 Europeans for Climate Association: Take the climate election check! Online at: https://klimawahlcheck.eu/
8 The Good Food Institute Europe (2023): Germany plant-based food retail market insights 2020–2022. Online at: https://gfieurope.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/2020-2022-Germany-retail-market-insights_updated.pdf
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