Meat in Germany is extremely cheap. The reason: low standards in animal husbandry and poor working conditions. 70 years ago, a kilo of pork cost 1.6% of net monthly income. Today – only 0.22%, reported Deutsche says.
“That’s right, the taste should be like that. The recipe is from my grandfather,” says butcher Christoph Schneider proudly. He has just prepared a special kind of bloodletter, typical of the region around Fulda, in the state of Hesse. Schneider, whose family has traditionally been involved in butchery and sausage making since 1320, still produces the sausages himself. “The good thing is that, unlike industry, we only produce what we need,” he says.
“Meat has lost its value”
But the local butcher has long been the main supplier in the area. The reason: cheap meats in supermarkets prevail. It is the price that influences consumer behavior.
“Meat has long since lost its value,” says agricultural production specialist Christiane Chemnitz of the Heinrich Böll Foundation. This foundation, close to the Green Party, annually publishes the so-called “Atlas of Meat”. And he urges not to sell cheap meat, because that is what attracts customers, as Chemnitz emphasizes.
The LIDL chain, for example, sells 400 tonnes of minced meat a week in Germany. And when prices are further reduced, it reaches 612 tons.
Low prices, cheap production
The beginning of mass meat production dates back to the 1960s. Back then, the production of meat on the assembly line was a source of pride. In 1966, a reporter commented on the massacres as follows: “Lower market prices can be offered to the consumer only through automated meat processing.” This was said more than 50 years ago – but it remains in force to this day. More than two million animals are slaughtered every day in Germany.
Chicken legs – 100 g for 0.29 euros
And while in 1950 in Germany one kilogram of pork cost 1.6% of net monthly income, in 1975 – only 0.56%. And in 2020, a kilo of pork came out only 0.22 percent of net monthly income. “Meat is so cheap because it is cheap to produce. I mean low environmental standards, low animal husbandry standards and low staff pay,” said Christiane Chemnitz.
The scandals from which nothing came
Today, large concerns set the tone in meat processing. The top three in Germany are Tönnies, Fion Food and Westfleisch (Tönnies, Vion Food, Westfleisch), and all three have been regularly criticized in the media for years.
As Chemnitz notes, it was only last year that the general public understood what was really going on in the slaughterhouses. This has caused at least the younger generation to think about the meat products that fall into their plates. “More than two-thirds of younger people reject today’s meat processing industry. They see it as a threat to the climate and generally eat lean much more often than other age groups,” she said.
The meat at the butcher Christoph Schneider in Fulda is from the region. However, some of his customers are reluctant to pay more for it. Even 20 cents above can be seen a lot and they are dissatisfied, says the butcher. And he is under pressure from big companies and does not understand how scandals in the field have been forgotten so quickly. His appeal: “We should not eat meat every day. And we should not succumb to the aggressive advertising of supermarkets – more and more. Let’s eat less meat, but better.”
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