Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

HEALTH

‘Eat less meat’: Minister calls on Spaniards to cut down on carnivorous habits

Consumer Affairs Minister Alberto Garzón has reignited the debate about Spain's love of meat by asking Spaniards to consume less 'carne' to protect their personal health as well as the future of the planet.

Published: 8 July 2021 13:10 CEST
'Eat less meat': Minister calls on Spaniards to cut down on carnivorous habits
A Spanish butcher cuts ribs at a Madrid market. Photo: Gabriel BOUYS / AFP

“I am worried. I am worried about the planet,” Garzón said in a video posted on Twitter on July 7th, pleading with Spaniards to cut down their meat consumption to improve their personal wellbeing and that of the planet’s.

“Without a planet we have no life, we have no salaries and we have no economy.

“And we are bringing this upon ourselves. One thing we can change, which has a direct impact on the planet, is our diet. We can change our diet and improve the state of the planet”.

Garzón explained that according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the meat and dairy industry accounts for 14.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

He believes that a “50 percent reduction in emissions could be achieved” if Spaniards are able to adjust their diet and consume a moderate amount of meat, which is recommended by the health authorities.

Spain consumes seven million tonnes of meat each year, which comes from the slaughter of 70 million animals.

The Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition recommends a weekly consumption of between 200 and 500 grammes of meat (carne in Spanish), while Spaniards consume on average more than one kilo. This is between two and five times more than what is considered optimal.

In the video, Garzón also criticised the meat industry and particularly macro-farms, saying that “for us to have one kilo of beef, 15,000 litres of water are required”.

Spanish minister asks people to consume less meat. Photo: Free-Photos / Pixabay

According to FAO data cited in the video, Spain is the country that consumes the most meat in the European Union.

The latest data from Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture also revealed an increase in meat consumption of 10.5 percent in 2020. Per capita consumption is close to 50 kilos per year and each Spaniard spent an average of €350 on meat in 2020.

Garzón continued to say that Spaniards don’t need to cut out meat completely, but should aim to reduce it, changing their diets to include more salads, legumes, rice and vegetables.

He also admitted that “not all types of livestock are the same” and that “extensive farming is much more sustainable than large macro-farms: it helps enrich soils, prevent fires and create jobs”.

Livestock farmers however have rejected Garzón’s recommendation to consume less meat and some associations have already demanded his resignation due to “his erroneous attack”.

The Young Farmers Agricultural Association (Asaja) in the city of Valladolid has issued a statement in which it requests the immediate termination of Garzón as Minister if he does not rectify his statement.

In 2015, the WHO issued a health warning that carcinogens were present in certain types of meat, including jamón, however that didn’t seem to curb Spaniards’ appetite for their most beloved product. 

Despite Spaniards’ excessive consumption of meat, it doesn’t seem to be affecting their health too much, as the Spanish are predicted to have the longest life expectancy in the world by 2040 – mainly thanks to their Mediterranean diet. In 2019, Spain was already considered the healthiest country in the world, according to the Bloomberg Healthiest Country Index. 

READ ALSO:

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

SPANISH HISTORY

Who are the historical figures that dominate Spanish street names?

Once you get to know your town or city in Spain better, you may start to wonder who the people that feature so often in street signs actually were. It's a window into Spanish society and history, and the historical figures that Spaniards value.

Published: 5 March 2024 12:09 CET
Who are the historical figures that dominate Spanish street names?

Whenever you take a stroll through a new place, whether in Spain or abroad, whether on holiday or in a new city you’re making home, noticing (and learning) some of the street names is one of the first things you do.

And though they can be very useful in terms of directions and getting a feel for a place, street names can also tell us quite a bit about a place — the history, the society and culture, its key historical figures.

This is true in most countries, of course. If you were to take a stroll through any town or city in the UK, you’d likely come across a London Rd., High St., or Market St. before long. If you’re looking out for historical figures, it’d be King. St or Charles St. or even something a little more obscure like Bob Marley Way.

In France, you’d no doubt see many a Rue de Charles de Gaulle, or Victor Hugo, two of the three most common historically inspired street names found in France.

READ ALSO: Which French figure has the most streets named after them?

But what about Spain? What are the most common street names in Spain, and which historical figures are most often used?

A research project at Pablo de Olavide University has revealed the most common street names in Spain, and they tell us quite a lot about Spanish history, society and culture. “Street names are not random, but reflect the social, cultural and historical values of a population,” says Daniel Oto-Peralías, Professor at Pablo de Olavide, who led the project. 

The project studied the street names in 8,131 municipalities across Spain through textual analysis techniques. It also has a great search engine tool, which you can find here, so you can search for different street names across Spain.

Mercado (Market) is a common name for streets and squares in Spain, but not as common as ‘iglesia’ (church). Photo: Zeynep Sümer/Unsplash
 

Of course, not all streets are named after great historical figures. Often they are fairly generic and geographically derived — think Church St. or Mill Lane in English.

According to the analysis done by Pablo de Olavide, in Spain the most common name in street names overall was iglesia (church) with 4,767 across the country, though this isn’t particularly surprising in a Catholic country.

Next was mayor (main) with 3,762; followed by fuente (fountain) with 2,544; constitución (constitution) with 2,439; real (royal) with 2,208; and finally eras with 2,063 streets around Spain.

READ ALSO: Why does Madrid have a plaza named after Margaret Thatcher?

Historical figures

The presence of historical figures is also significant in Spanish street names. The most renowned is the writer Miguel de Cervantes, the author of arguably the most famous novel of all time, Don Quixote, who appears in 1,940 streets across the country.

He is followed by Nobel Prize winning scientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal, the man dubbed the father of modern neuroscience, with 1,383 streets, and Granada poet Federico García Lorca (shot by Franco’s fascists for being a homosexual), who has more than a thousand.

Alexander Fleming, the Scottish scientist who discovered penicillin, is in fact the seventh most common Spanish street moniker named after a male historical figure.

Pope John XXIII and El Greco, the Greek painter and sculptor who played a significant role in the Spanish Renaissance and died in Toledo, are also very popular street names all over the country.

There are hundreds of streets named after Spanish conquistadors Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro and of course Cristobal Colón (Christopher Columbus), as well Spanish painters Velázquez (who painted ‘Las Meninas’) and Francisco de Goya (‘La Maja Desnuda’) and as could be expected plenty of Picasso Streets. The lesser-known 17th century Spanish artist Murillo also gives his name to many streets.

Additionally, poets Antonio Machado, Juan Ramón Jiménez and Miguel Hernández feature in lots of calles across Spain, as does the scandal-hit emeritus king Juan Carlos I.

Gender gap

However, the study also revealed that just 12.7 percent of the streets named after people in Spain are named after women.

Republican lawyer and politician Clara Campoamor, widely considered the mother of Spain’s feminist movement, is the woman most commemorated. She spearheaded the push for universal suffrage and achieved Spanish women’s right to vote in 1931.

Campoamor is followed by 19th century Galician poet and novelist Rosalía de Castro and 20th century philosopher and essayist María Zambrano.

Catholic Queen Isabel I, who together with King Ferdinand led the Reconquista against the Moors and united ‘modern Spain’, is also widely featured, as is the mother of current King Felipe VI, Reina Sofía.

Other Spanish women whose names are emblazoned across Spanish street plaques were usually ahead of their time in patriarchal Spain, including Concepción Arenal (considered the precursor of social work in Spain) and 19th century María Pineda (a liberal who faced the guillotine for defying the absolute monarchy of Fernando VII). 

Religious streets

Of course, historical figures aside, Spain unsurprisingly has a huge number of streets with religious names. Research from Pablo de Olavide also revealed just how many streets in Spain have religious names — 12 percent overall.

In provinces such as Burgos, Navarra and Cuenca there are religious references in more than 15 percent of the streets, but perhaps the most striking example is the case of the Triana-Los Remedios neighbourhood in Seville, one of the traditional hotbeds of Semana Santa activity, which has 41 streets dedicated to ‘virgins’ alone.

READ HISTORY: Why are there so many Irish street names in Spain’s Canary Islands?

SHOW COMMENTS