‘Veggie burger’ law fuels culture war at expense of farmers and consumers

Today, the European Parliament just approved the result of the trilogue negotiations on the law on ‘Strengthening of the position of farmers in the food supply chain’, which is part of the Common Organisation of Markets (CMO) regulation in agricultural products.

After the original text was significantly weakened and ultimately includes a blacklist for particular descriptions for plant-based products, the Greens/EFA Group voted against the law.

Volt MEP Anna Strolenberg, who negotiated the file for the Greens/EFA Group in the Committee for Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI), comments:

"This law was supposed to strengthen the position of small and medium sized farmers. Instead, we are making identity politics for burgers.

“EPP used naming bans for plant based products as a smokescreen to weaken contract obligations for farmers. Now, selected plant based products will have to be renamed arbitrarily. While we were able to prevent some of the absurd ban suggestions, terms like vegan „steak“ or „bacon“ are now blacklisted.

“This does not help the meat industry, which is increasingly investing in vegan products, and it certainly does not help consumers. It is creating a cultural war at the expense of farmers and EU citizens.”

More:

While a ban on the term “veggie burger” itself has been prevented, prohibited terms include the words "steak“, "liver", and their translations such as "Leberwurst" (German) and "foie“ (French). Please find a full list here:

Beef, veal, pork, poultry, chicken, turkey, duck, goose, lamb, mutton, ovine, goat, drumstick, tenderloin, sirloin, flank, loin, steak, ribs, shoulder, shank, chop, wing, breast, liver, thigh, brisket, ribeye, T-bone, rump and bacon.