The European office of the World Health Organization (WHO) has just published a new 139-page report titled "Commercial Determinants of Noncommunicable Diseases in the WHO European Region" (2024).
Form the Abstract:
"The report’s chapters systematically explore various facets of how commercial interests exacerbate NCDs [non-communicable diseases, i.e., chronic, non-infectious disease] and key strategies used by commercial actors to negatively influence NCD-related policies at the national and international level."
In the report, there is a case study about the meat industry, which is cited below. Highlights are mine:
In the report, there is a case study about the meat industry, which is cited below. Highlights are mine:
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Case study 4. Meat production in Europe
As a recent report shows, market concentration in the meat sector has increased significantly over the years globally (14). Today, ten very large global meat companies play a defining role in determining how meat and feed are produced, transported and traded. These ten meat producers and processors have their headquarters in just five countries/regional blocks – Brazil, China, EU, Japan and the United States – but through their globalized supply chains, they dominate markets around the world and have a presence in all the main meat-producing regions. These large companies also have a very strong presence throughout Europe. Companies such as JBS S.A. (Brazil), WH Group (China), Crown (Denmark), Tyson (the United States), Cargill ( the United States) generate their European profits by selling fresh and frozen meat produced in Europe or meat products imported from other countries, such as Brazil and Thailand. They have used M&As [mergers and acquisitions] to swallow up small and large firms to significantly increase their market power in Europe and to gain control over the entire meat supply chain (14). These firms are typically involved in, or even control, everything from meat farming and production to processing and trading and often also own distribution centres, so they can distribute the products directly across Europe. Some relevant recent M&As include United States meat giant Tyson’s acquisition of all European operations of BRF (Brazil), the world’s eighth largest meat company (15), and JBS buying up one of the biggest United Kingdom-based pork meat processors to expand its European market share (14). JBS is also considering buying German meat company the Tönnies Group, which is one of Europe’s largest meat producers and the German market leader for pork production (16).
The market power these firms have gained as a result of these developments has, according to research, hindered a reduction in meat consumption as it enables them to exert influence throughout the supply chain; for example, by imposing low producer prices and forcing farmers to sell below their cost of production (17). This has other consequences too: farmers must raise large numbers of animals in order to keep satisfying the demand of the big meat companies dominating the market and, to survive in such an economic climate, they often rely heavily on public subsidies for support (14). For instance, EU cattle farmers rely on direct subsidies for at least 50% of their income (14).
Market power often also translates into political power. A recent illustration of this in relation to the meat sector is its successful lobbying effort (read more in Chapter 4) related to the EU’s Farm to Fork strategy, which was launched in 2020 (18). Part of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2023–2027 and at the heart of the European Green Deal, the aim of the strategy is to make the EU’s food system fairer, healthier and more sustainable. It has a strong emphasis on NCDs, as illustrated by this passage from one of the key documents published by the EU detailing the strategy:
Moving to a more plant-based diet with less red and processed meat and with more fruits and vegetables will reduce not only risks of life-threatening diseases, but also the environmental impact of the food system. It is estimated that in the EU in 2017 over 950 000 deaths (one out of five) and over 16 million lost healthy life years were attributable to unhealthy diets, mainly cardiovascular diseases and cancers. The EU’s ‘beating cancer’ plan includes the promotion of healthy diets as part of the actions for cancer prevention (18).
However, recent analyses show that more than two thirds of the strategy will likely remain unimplemented before a new European Commission takes office in November 2024, with most legislative proposals still under discussion by lawmakers and some of the most ambitious initiatives either having been put on ice indefinitely or scrapped entirely (19). A key reason for this derailing is that the legislation has fallen victim to an intensive political campaign by industrial pressure groups and evidence suggests that multinational meat giants, together with companies, such as petrochemical or pharmaceutical companies, have played a pivotal role in these efforts (20). The political campaign by the meat industry has consisted of intensive lobbying against key components of the strategy (21, 22) as well as abusing science (read more in Chapter 6) and skewing media coverage in relation to Farm to Fork (22). For instance, meat lobby groups, including the Liaison Centre for the Meat Processing Industry in the European Union (Clitravi) and the European Livestock Voice, have commissioned studies that attack the Farm to Fork strategy (22).
These efforts have been successful because proposals put forward as part of the Farm to Fork strategy, such as explicit references to health risks associated with intensive farming, requirements to increase transparency by labelling products, and the ability of EU Member States to impose higher taxes on unsustainable products, have all been delayed or watered down (22). Another proposal – to ban the financing of the promotion of red meat – was not just delayed but blocked (23). In fact, in recent years, the EU has invested millions of euros into campaigns to promote beef consumption, among which a €4.5 million initiative called “Proud of EU beef” supports two beef lobby groups: Provacuno in Spain and APAQ-W in Belgium (24). Big meat companies have also lobbied against initiatives to promote and fund research for the development of alternative protein sources, and with success: reports show that, because of their political power meat companies have been able to block the development of greener and healthier alternatives (17, 25). A recent analysis of lobbying, subsidies and regulations showed that money spent on lobbying by meat producers in the EU dwarfed lobby efforts for alternatives and that of all research and innovation spending, 97% went to meat producers rather than to plant-based meat or cultivated meat groups, and almost all these funds were aimed at improving meat production (17).
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Reference:
World Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe. (2024). Commercial Determinants of Noncommunicable Diseases in the WHO European Region. World Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe. https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/376957. License: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO