Dutch city of Haarlem may be world’s first to ban most meat ads

Due to the way meat affects the climate, Haarlem, Netherlands, plans to outlaw the majority of meat advertisements in public places. It will begin enforcing the ban in 2024, in what is believed to be the first such action by a city.

The meat industry and other people who claim it stifles free speech have opposed the motion put out by GroenLinks, a green political party. According to the UN, animals produce more than 14% of all greenhouse gases created by humans, including methane.”Meat seriously damages the ecosystem. We cannot inform people of the climate catastrophe while urging them to purchase items that contribute to it “The motion’s author, GroenLinks councilman Ziggy Klazes, told the publication Trouw.

The 160,000-person city’s administration claims that a decision has not yet been made regarding whether sustainably produced beef would be exempt from the ad banAdditionally, members of the Christian Democratic Challenge party backed the measure.

The meat business quickly retaliated. Spokesman for the Central Organization for the Meat Sector: “The authorities are going too far in telling people what’s best for them.”

According to the right-wing BVNL party, it “would be disastrous for pig farmers” and was a “intolerable violation of entrepreneurial freedom.” Councilman Joey Rademaker of the Haarlem BVNL claimed that outlawing advertisements with political overtones was practically totalitarian.

According to Statistics Netherlands, although more than half of Dutch people consume meat, only about 95% of them do so daily.

Ads for the aviation and fossil fuel industries have already been outlawed in Amsterdam and The Hague.

Methane emissions from greenhouse gases, which include those from beef, are the highest. The environmental impact of lamb is the second largest, but these emissions are 50% lower than those of beef.

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