“I’m a carnivore and I’m not ashamed of it” is the main motto campaign I eat meat, which was launched by the Agrarian Chamber last year. In it, the organization that brings together 100,000 farmers and food workers emphasizes the importance of meat in the menu and, conversely, criticizes its vegetarian substitutes, especially processed foods, including a veggie burger or imitation steak. He attributed this to diabetes or heart failure.

Last year, the Ministry of Agriculture supported the campaign with 3.7 million crowns of public money, as shown by Aktuálně.cz. And this year he wants to continue. “After the economic evaluation of the project, the allocated subsidy amount was agreed to be 882,300 crowns,” said the spokesman for the department, Vojtěch Bílý.

The decision was made despite then minister Zdeněk Nekula distancing himself from last year’s campaign. “I don’t find the processing of the campaign itself enjoyable, but it’s primarily a matter of sponsors and processors,” he said at the time, adding that he himself was trying to limit eating meat.

He made the announcement after the campaign was criticized by some experts. They evaluated it as significantly one-sided, biochemist and deputy dean of Charles Jan Trnka University’s 3rd School of Medicine even described it as disinformation.

He alluded specifically to the one that was published leaflet. While regular burgers are made on the basis of this ingredient, first the cows graze among the trees, then they go to the slaughterhouse and then the meat emerges, the Agrarian Chamber denotes the production of a vegetarian alternative in 25 steps as a complicated process full of chemicals. , a product that also causes diabetes or liver disease in people.

“The production of meat is explained in a significantly simplified way, on the other hand, the production of substitutes is shown step by step, and it is also done graphically in such a way that the process looks very industrial and problematic. At the same time, the production of hamburgers for fast food chains would look similar,” Trnka said.

Nutritional epidemiologist Eliška Selinger also described the campaign as manipulative. “Eating meat three times a day, as is customary here, is not ideal from a nutritional point of view. In particular, the association of red meat with colon tumors is relatively well explained. But space hides it under the rug,” adds the expert.

The Agrarian Chamber later modified the Žeru Maso website slightly. He added, for example, there is no need to eat meat every day, it is better to eat two or three times a week. He did not say what form the campaign would take this year.

“This project aims to emphasize the importance of meat in human nutrition, an irreplaceable animal protein for optimal development and tissue regeneration and its various culinary uses. It is also intended to draw attention to welfare standards in animal production, their relationship to crop production and the importance of the landscape, ” said only spokesperson Barbora Pánková.

The form of the campaign will also not be controlled by the Ministry. “We mainly monitor the goals of the project and the types of individual activities. The final form of this campaign depends on the recipient of the subsidy, in this case the Agrarian Chamber,” said the spokesman for Bílý.

VIDEO: I don’t know why I have to pay for my meat-eating campaign. We eat more than is healthy, says co-chair of Greens (24 November 2022)