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‘We need a meat tax’: German politicians pitch plan to improve animal welfare

The meat industry currently pays less than half of Germany's standard VAT (value added tax). Now many are arguing that that it's high time for this to change.

'We need a meat tax': German politicians pitch plan to improve animal welfare
Photo: DPA

German politicians are speaking out in favour of raising the VAT (Mehrwertsteuer) on meat in a bid to improve animal welfare and cut CO2 emissions. 

The decision makers want to raise the tax to the standard VAT, or 19 percent, up from the current seven percent that consumers are required to pay for meat products.

“I’m in favour of raising the VAT reduction and using it for greater animal protection” said Friedrich Ostendorf, a Greens spokesman on agricultural policy.

He pointed out that there is no reason that the meat should be taxed less, while products such as oat milk are taxed the standard 19 percent VAT.

The increase was originally put forward by Germany’s Animal Welfare Association. “Parallel to the CO2 tax, we also need a meat tax,” its president Thomas Schröder said, pointing out that meat, milk and eggs only cost “a few cents” per kilo. 

The increased VAT, say the politicians, would have the double advantage of reducing CO2 emissions.

In its 2016 climate protection plan, Germany's so-called 'grand coalition' – made up of Chancellor Angela Merkel's  Christian Democrats and the centre-left Social Democrats – agreed in targets for the agricultural sector: by 2030, emissions should fall by 31 to 34 percent compared with 1990 levels.

'It would affect consumers'

The proposed increase comes as Germany continues to face increased scrutiny over how it treats its livestock. 

In June, Germany’s top court controversially ruled that the slaughtering of male chicks – about 45 million per year – may continue in the poultry industry.

SEE ALSO: Germany allows slaughter of male chicks to continue

Rainer Spiering, the SPD's agricultural policy spokesman, also felt that a meat tax could reduce consumption but that “it would mostly affect consumers,” rather than leading to a shift in standards in the meat industry. 

He added that meat producers and food retailers would also have to make a contribution to sustainable livestock farming.

Christian Democratic (CDU) agricultural politician Albert Stegemann said the “meat tax” was a “constructive” first step to changing farming practices, but that the extra funds generated by it should go back to the livestock industry directly.

“This additional income would have to be used as an animal welfare premium in order to support the livestock farmers in Germany during their restructuring,” said Stegemann.

“The road to socially sustainable livestock farming would cost billions of euros, which farmers in Germany would not be able to bear alone.

Bernhard Krüsken, General Secretary of the German Farmers' Association, spoke out against the tax on Wednesday.

“It is not the tax authorities but farmers who need funds and support for the further development of animal husbandry,” he said.

Opting for a vegetarian diet

Since 2011 meat consumption in Germany has been decreasing, with 2,000 Germans per day deciding to go vegetarian, according to supermarket group REWE. 

There are a total of eight million vegetarians in the country, according to current estimates, or 10 percent of the population. 

The turn to a meat-free diet has led to a slew of more affordably priced vegetarian and vegan products throughout the country, yet many consumers still complain these are priced too high, reports bento. 

“Do vegetables cost too much, or meat too little?” the online newspaper asked rhetorically.

SEE ALSO: Meat consumption drops significantly as more Germans spurn the sausage

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‘Città 30’: Which Italian cities will bring in new speed limits?

Bologna has faced heavy criticism - including from the Italian government - after introducing a speed limit of 30km/h, but it's not the only city to approve these rules.

'Città 30': Which Italian cities will bring in new speed limits?

Bologna on January 17th became Italy’s first major city to introduce a speed limit of 30km/h on 70 percent of roads in the city centre under its ‘Città 30’ plan, first announced in 2022, and initially set to come into force by June 2023.

The move made Bologna one of a growing number of European cities, including Paris, Madrid, Brussels, and Bilbao, to bring in a 30km/h limit aimed at improving air quality and road safety.

But the change was met last week with a go-slow protest by Bologna’s taxi drivers and, perhaps more surprisingly, criticism from the Italian transport ministry, which financed the measure.

Matteo Salvini, who is currently serving as Italy’s transport minister, this week pledged to bring in new nationwide rules dictating speed limits in cities that would reverse Bologna’s new rule.

Salvini’s League party has long criticised Bologna’s ‘Città 30’ plan, claiming it would make life harder for residents as well as people working in the city and would create “more traffic and fines”.

OPINION: Italians and their cars are inseparable – will this ever change?

Bologna’s speed limit has sparked a heated debate across Italy, despite the increasingly widespread adoption of such measures in many other cities in Europe and worldwide in recent years.

While Bologna is the biggest Italian city to bring in the measure, it’s not the first – and many more local authorities, including in Rome, are now looking to follow their example in the next few years.

Some 60 smaller cities and towns in Italy have adopted the measure so far, according to Sky TG24, though there is no complete list.

This compares to around 200 French towns and cities to adopt the rule, while in Spain the same limit has applied to 70 percent of all the country’s roads since since May 2021 under nationwide rules, reports LA7.

The first Italian town to experiment with a 30 km/h speed limit was Cesena, south of Bologna, which introduced it in 1998. Since then, the local authority has found that serious accidents have halved, while the number of non-serious ones has remained unchanged.

Olbia, in Sardinia, also famously introduced the speed limit in 2021.

The city of Parma is planning to bring in the same rules from 2024, while the Tuscan capital of Florence approved five 30km/h zones in the city centre earlier this month.

Turin is set to bring in its first 30km/h limits this year as part of its broader plan to improve transport infrastructure, aimed at reducing smog and increasing livability.

READ ALSO: Why electric cars aren’t more popular in Italy

Meanwhile, the mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, has promised to introduce the limit on 70 percent of the capital’s roads by the end of his mandate, which expires in 2026.

In Milan, while the city council has voted in favour of lower speed limits and other traffic limitations on central roads, it’s not clear when these could come into force.

Milan mayor Beppe Sala this week said a 30 km/h limit would be “impossible” to implement in the Lombardy capital.

And it’s notable that almost all of the cities looking at slowing down traffic are in the north or centre-north of Italy.

There has been little interest reported in the measures further south, where statistics have shown there are a higher number of serious road accidents – though the total number of accidents is in fact higher in the north.

According to the World Health Organisation the risk of death to a pedestrian hit by a car driven at 50 km/h is 80 percent. The risk drops to 10 percent at 30 km/h.

The speed limit on roads in Italian towns and cities is generally 50, and on the autostrade (motorways) it’s up to 130.

Many Italian residents are heavily dependent on cars as their primary mode of transport: Italy has the second-highest rate of car ownership in Europe, with 670 vehicles per 1,000 residents, second only to Luxembourg with 682, according to statistics agency Eurostat.

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