subsidies

Portrait Tobias Leenaert

© Tobias Leenaert
Opinion

Op Ed: Tobias Leenaert – Can We Stop Paying the Polluters? A Report on the Defund Meat Conference

Tobias Leenaert is the author of How to Create a Vegan World: A Pragmatic Approach, a highly regarded book offering practical strategies for vegan advocacy. He is also the co-founder of ProVeg International. Tobias is known for his thoughtful, pragmatic, and solutions-oriented approach to building a more sustainable and compassionate food system. In this article, Tobias discusses the key takeaways from the Defund Meat Conference in Heidelberg, Germany, where leading academics presented research and strategies for reducing meat consumption through legal, economic, and political interventions. Can We Stop Paying the Polluters? By Tobias Leenaert of ProVeg International On Jan. 16-17, 2025, I attended the Defund Meat Conference at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, Germany. The one hundred or …

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female farmer spraying veg

Image courtesy of ProVeg International

Agriculture / Agribusiness

ProVeg Calls for Restructuring of EU Agriculture Subsidies to Prioritise Sustainable Crops

In a new policy brief, ProVeg International has called for the EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP) subsidies to be restructured to prioritise sustainable crop production. According to the policy brief, subsidies should incentivise farming that enhances nature, improves rural livelihoods, and minimises social and economic costs. ProVeg notes that some agricultural practices have consequences such as deforestation, soil degradation, greenhouse gas emissions, and biodiversity loss; in response, production may be intensified even further, creating a vicious cycle of harm. Along with incentives for sustainable crop production, the policy brief also recommends “true-cost accounting” for food production. It argues that if subsidies were allocated according to the true cost of food — accounting for factors such as environmental impact and the economic and human cost of …

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Supermarket shelves with alt milk courtesy ProVeg

Image courtesy ProVeg
Milk- and Dairy Alternatives

As Plant Milk Tax Affects Sales, Aldi and Lidl Shrink Price Gap with Dairy in Netherlands

At Aldi and Lidl, you now pay almost as much for a litre of plant milk as for a litre of cow’s milk. This is the result of a price analysis by Wakker Dier for the Netherlands. “Many consumers choose a product based on price. Aldi and Lidl are therefore helping their customers to make a better choice,” says Collin Molenaar from Wakker Dier. At the beginning of this year, the price of plant-based milk rose due to the introduction of the oat milk tax. Wakker Dier sounded the alarm when sales of plant-based milk plummeted by seven percent. In May, a litre of cow’s milk was on average 91 cents cheaper than plant-based milk. Now the difference is smaller at 76 cents. At DekaMarkt, …

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cows factory farming

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Sustainability / Environment

World Bank Recommends Shifting “Wasteful” Subsidies Away From Animal Agriculture

In a new report titled Recipe for a Livable Planet, the World Bank recommends that high-income countries should shift subsidies away from animal agriculture and towards more sustainable alternatives. The report finds that conventional agriculture contributes to soil degradation, deforestation, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, and pollution. But even though the agrifood system is one of the biggest contributors to climate change, most actions that have been taken to reduce emissions have targeted other sectors. According to the World Bank, livestock account for 25.9% of agrifood emissions, more than any other source. Additionally, some other sources may be indirectly related to animal agriculture — for example, net forest conversion accounts for 18.4% of agrifood emissions, and forest is often cleared for pasture or to grow animal …

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Bull in a Climate Shop report by Friends of the Earth and Profundo

© Profundo / Friends of the Earth
Society

The Shocking Truth of How Subsidies Impact the Cost of Plant-Based vs. Animal Meat

There’s a prevailing narrative that plant-based meat alternatives are more expensive than meat, making them less accessible to many consumers. However, a critical, often overlooked element in this discussion is the profound impact of government subsidies on market prices. Multiple global studies and data as described below highlight a substantial gap in government support, with meat and dairy producers receiving a lion’s share compared to their plant-based counterparts. This financial imbalance, fueled by policy decisions and the formidable lobbying power of the meat and dairy industries, plays a crucial role in maintaining lower prices for animal products at the expense of plant-based alternatives.  The subsidy gap Government subsidies designed to support the agricultural sector are distributed in a manner that heavily favors meat and dairy …

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Cows on a truck

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Society

82% of EU Agricultural Subsidies are Channeled into Climate-Damaging Animal Products

The European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy channels a large proportion of its agricultural subsidies into supporting the production of emission-intensive animal-based foods. According to a new study, 82% of EU agricultural subsidies are channelled into the production of emission-intensive animal products, with a portion being provided directly and another portion indirectly through feed subsidies. This practice is at odds with the European Green Deal and the growing calls for more sustainable and environmentally friendly agriculture. The analysis of global physical input-output datasets in conjunction with public subsidy data showed that the subsidy intensity for animal products increases significantly when the necessary feed is included. These animal products are associated with 84% of embodied greenhouse gas emissions from EU food production. Despite their high share of …

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