No, Zero, if we’re going to eat less meat, it’s not the farmers who are going to choke our supply.
Recently, the environmental foundation presented its Zero The Zero Report 2024, where they write that Norway can cut its climate emissions by 53 percent by 2030, if we implement the measures they list. One of them is the fight against beef, milk and sheep and lamb.
– We believe that consumption [av rødt kjøtt] must go down in line with production and that we must spend a few years on the problem, said head of department Stig Schjølset to the Nation when the report was launched.
The statement suggests that Norwegian farmers must contribute to the climate effort by not supplying what is demanded by the population, and in that way influence our menu.
Together with the sensible measures they otherwise list about the use of animal manure for biogas, reducing food waste and other things, the measures on red meat are problematic.
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For several reasons.
It goes the way Zero kicks
One thing is that the development is already going in the direction Zero wants. To the extent that further political stimulus to reduce the production of beef, milk and lamb becomes highly questionable according to the UN’s Millennium Development Goals for the environment, climate and social development.
According to Statistics Norway, the population increased by as much as 1.1 percent in 2023, of course due to Ukrainian refugees, to 5,550,203. But cattle production went down with 1.6 percent. The production of sheep and lamb was reduced by as much as 5 per cent, according to the Norwegian Directorate of Agriculture.
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Seen over several years, the population increased from 4,858,199 in 2010 by 14.2 per cent to last year. And what happened to cattle production during the same period? It went up by only 8.5 percent. The number of sheep has also gone down down with 11.3 percent from 2014 to 2023.
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Zero, Venstre and other opponents of this industry can already note significant gains.
Is this sustainable?
According to the report, the agricultural agreement should stimulate a transition from the production of red meat to plant-based products.
And what is a more important plant product to stimulate increased use of than grass, the only realistic plant product in many places in Norway?
We can use grass for human food only through the disgusting cows, sheep and goats.
The situation for the use of grass is demonstrated in Troms and Finnmark, where a shocking 37.7 per cent of the agricultural area is fallow – in a country where only 3 per cent of the area is suitable for agriculture.
As many as 1,517 square kilometers or 13.4 percent of the country’s total agricultural area were out of operation in 2022, statistics from Nibio show.
It is positive that the environmental movement calls for increased plant production, but how will it work for self-sufficiency, landscape and biological diversity if they appeal for less food production from plants that we can only use for ourselves via ruminants?
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Global advantage to drop Norwegian grass?
One question is whether it is correct from a global perspective that Norway should contribute with less food supply based on the country’s natural resources.
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Another is that the Storting has decided to increase Norwegian self-sufficiency in agricultural products by 25 per cent. The proportion must rise from 40 to 50 per cent of consumption.
Is it compatible with following Zero’s recipe to use less grass that grows in meadows and open fields?
– There will not be 50 percent self-sufficiency if you recommend a diet that is not in line with the land base in Norway, is the answer Bjørn Gimming, leader of the Norwegian Farmers Association, gives to that.
The WTO, EEA and imports sing in the background
This brings us to another question: Zero assumes that the decline in Norwegian production will not be replaced by increased imports – without any discussion of how they will prevent that.
One thing is that they want to remove the quota for duty-free meat that individuals can import on “harry-handel”.
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But will they advocate an import ban for commercial actors, or a sharp increase in customs duties, which would be contrary to the trade agreements Norway has entered into in the WTO?
In the WTO, Norway has also committed to importing certain quantities of meat with low or no customs duty. This applies to 7,784 tonnes of beef and 1,206 mutton/lamb a year.
The environmental movement’s new instrument for reviewing Norwegian elected officials’ decisions in environmental policy, the EU, has received special treatment with an exclusive quota of 2,500 tonnes of beef. In connection with the EEA agreement, which does not really cover agriculture, the EU has pushed for additions in the form of Article 19 and Protocol 3, which provide significant customs relief for agricultural goods.
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The environmental movement is certainly as aware as all of us, that the leading principle in the EU is the free flow of goods, capital, services and labour. In any case, they will not find themselves in restrictions on the export of meat to Norway.
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This means that Zero must provide a solution for if he means anything with his talk about keeping imports down.
People, meat and plant food
In the last ten years, imported beef has accounted for between 10 and 22 per cent of the annual wholesale consumption, according to AgriAnalyse.
It could just as well increase or decrease if Norwegian farmers are to offer even less of the red meat.
If the politicians are to reduce the production of Norwegian red meat, it must, in addition to preventing meat imports, start with consumption, not with the farmers having to cut off access by reducing production. Zero can achieve that if the authorities follow one of their other pieces of advice:
Letting the wealthy eat as much meat as they want, while most people, due to their proposal for increased VAT on meat and reduced VAT on plant-based food, will become plant-eaters to a greater extent.
You’re welcome!
Thomas Vermes writes in ABC Nyheter on Sundays. Read more of his comments here.
(Voices is ABC Nyheter’s debate section. Regular and occasional contributors write here about topical news topics. We also have a collaboration with the political online newspaper Altinget.no. If you are burning with an opinion or analysis, you can send the text to [email protected], then we will evaluate it).
