Dutch city first in the world to ban meat ads due to climate impact

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Haarlem, a city and municipality of 160,000 people in the Netherlands, is set to become the first in the world to ban meat advertisements due to concerns over climate change. 

The city council has agreed to outlaw ads for intensively farmed meat on public places like buses, shelters, and screens from 2024. It was approved by the city council in November and went unnoticed until last week when advertising agencies received notifications from city counselors.

"It will be the first city in the Netherlands -- and in fact, Europe and indeed the world -- to ban 'bad' meat ads in public places," Ziggy Klazes, councilor for the GroenLinks (Green-Left) party who drafted the motion, told sources.

She said it went against the city's politics to "earn money by renting the city's public space to products which accelerate global warming". The ban would target all "cheap meat from intensive farming", she said, adding "as far as I'm concerned that includes ads from fast food chains."

A decision has yet to be made for banning ads on organic meat.

Amsterdam and The Hague have already banned ads for air travel, petrol-driven cars, and fossil fuels but now Haarlem is set to add meat to that list.

Read more: Dutch farmers, government fail to reach deal on environmental plans

The ban has been criticized by the Dutch meat industry and some political parties who see it as a form of censorship and stigmatization of meat eaters.

"Banning ads for political reasons is nearly dictatorial," Joey Rademaker, a Haarlem councilor for the right-wing BVNL party, said in a statement.

The plan comes at a sensitive time for the Netherlands, which has seen months of protests by farmers angry at the government.

The reason? The government wants to reduce nitrogen emissions, a powerful greenhouse gas.

A new law imposes reductions of around 30 to 70% in 131 agricultural areas in order to reduce polluting emissions by half by 2030. Only 24.3 billion euros will be allocated to help farmers.

Pressured by the highest administrative court in the country, the Dutch government was forced to implement this project to reduce nitrogen emissions into the air in order to preserve its Natura 2000 classified nature reserves.

Read more: Ocean temperatures skyrocketing, may spin out of control

Meanwhile, the legal status of the carnivorous crackdown is also uncertain.

A ban could be challenged as being an attack on freedom of expression, administrative law professor Herman Broering of Groningen University was quoted as saying by Trouw newspaper.

Agriculture contributes to deforestation, climate change, and emissions of greenhouse gases, loss of biodiversity and ecosystems, and is a major user of fresh water.

The EU has suggested that people cut down on the consumption of meat and dairy products.

Some 95 percent of Dutch people eat meat, including 20 percent every day, according to the Dutch central statistics office.

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