No other sector contributes as massively to the loss of biodiversity, the clearing of forests, the destruction of our climate, the endangerment of our health systems, and the suffering of animals as industrial meat production. The consequences are scientifically proven and widely discussed. Now is the time to act: if the goals of the 2030 Global Sustainability Agenda and the Paris Climate Agreement are to be achieved, meat production must be fundamentally restructured.
More and more people in Germany are ready to do so—and are surprised that politicians are doing so little. After all, restructuring animal husbandry is not a pipe dream, but entirely possible: This is demonstrated by the “Meat Atlas 2018 – Recipes for Better Animal Husbandry,” which describes the most important instruments and political measures in an understandable and visually appealing way. Solutions to many of the effects of industrial animal husbandry are already on the table – but there is a lack of political will to implement them. This is because the resistance from the global meat industry is enormous.
The Meat Atlas 2018 is a joint publication by BUND, the Heinrich Böll Foundation, and Le Monde Diplomatique. It is the fourth atlas in the Meat Atlas series and, unlike the previous atlases, presents not only the problems of the meat industry and their causes, but above all opportunities, strategies, and tools for change.