The EU is backing a campaign encouraging people to become ‘Beefatarians’

First came vegetarian, then flexitarian. Now… beefatarian? Apparently so. The EU is backing a bonkers campaign set out by the Proud of European Beef Initiative to encourage people to eat more beef.

The three-year campaign, entitled ‘Become a Beefatarian’ will receive €3.6 million from the EU. It claims that the aim is to enable consumers to feel ‘confident’ about eating red meat again. According to the campaign website, “the scope of the project is not only to highlight the benefits of the product but to make the consumer feel identified and supported in its choice regarding it.”

It states that “consumer behaviour may lead to a refusal to eat meat due to the multiple types of information presented nowadays”. Is the EU really getting involved in another debate about plant-based alternatives ‘confusing’ consumers?

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‘You’re a real beefatarian’

The absolutely balmy advert for the campaign claims that ‘if the sound of beef sizzling on the grill brings tears of joy to your eyes, you’re a real beefatarian’.

There might be tears in our eyes but it’s definitely not because of joy. Cattle farming is no cause for celebration, it is destroying our environment, our health, and causing the unnecessary deaths of billions of animals worldwide.

So why is the EU spending millions of euros on such a bonkers campaign? Because we’re winning. People are increasingly moving away from meat, especially in Europe. In fact, the number of vegans in Europe has doubled in the past four years.

The meat industry is scared, and it’s getting desperate.

‘Sustainable farming’

The 30-second advert ends with the claim: “If you support sustainable farming by choosing European beef, you are real beefatarians.”

Eating beef might make you a so-called ‘beefatarian’ but it is by no means a sustainable practice. While animal agriculture likes to argue that grass-fed beef is more environmentally friendly than factory farming, it’s simply not true. If everyone in the UK ate grass-fed beef, the entire country would be covered in grazing cows, because it would require more land than we have available.

A group two carcinogen

Red meat – lamb, beef and pork – is classified by the World Health Organisation as group 2A, meaning it ‘probably causes cancer’. Moreover, red meat is high in saturated fat, which contributes to heart disease – the leading cause of death worldwide.

So is it right that the EU is funding a campaign to promote it? Definitely not. However, it seems that money is the priority, and losing revenue from animal farming is high on their list of concerns.

People are waking up to the cruelty and negative consequences of animal farming every day, and we hope this campaign only demonstrates how out of touch this campaign really is.

Ever wondered what the world would look like if plant-based farming became widespread?
Read our article to find out now!