Argentina’s vegan Mondays

By A.L.

ARGENTINA is famous for its beef. After winning independence from Spain in the early 19th century, the nascent republic beat swords into ploughshares and turned the southern Pampas into a regional breadbasket. The number of cows grew rapidly (Argentina is home to 5% of the world’s herd) and so, for many years, did beef consumption. But things are changing. In 2010 Argentines lost the title of the world’s biggest beefeaters, when measured by annual consumption per person, to neighbouring Uruguayans. Diego Vecino, a writer, lamented Argentina’s declining beef consumption and suggested the country was “immersed in shame”. Now it seems the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace, is embracing the trend. In a bid to start a debate on health and the national diet, it has instituted meat-free Mondays. For one lunch each week, the canteen will only serve vegan options to the 500-plus employees, including President Mauricio Macri.

The introduction of meatless Mondays to the Casa Rosada adds Argentina to the list of countries investigating ways to limit meat consumption. The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean are in the middle of an obesity crisis. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that a majority of people are overweight in all but three countries of the region. Argentina has particular grounds for concern. The rate of obesity among its boys is the highest in Latin America, and among girls it is the third-highest. This has been linked to various causes, including excessive eating of beef. Daily consumption per person in Argentina—150g—is over double the recommended amount. And health concerns are not the only ones cited by those looking to reduce meat consumption. The livestock sector accounts for 15% of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions–the equivalent of all the vehicles in the world. Animal pastures have been blamed for 90% of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Beef is a particularly voracious user of water, with 15,000 litres of water needed to produce a kilogram of the meat.

Critics of the Casa Rosada’s new policy see ulterior motives. The Argentine Beef Promotion Institute, a lobbying group, has denounced the move as a bid for votes. Indeed, the promotion of meat-free eating has become rather political. A German proposal from 2013 calling for “Veggie Day” in public canteens led to a backlash. It was condemned as an “ecological dictatorship” and received considerable attention in pre-election coverage. Germans voted “nein” to the Greens that year. Undeterred, the country’s environment ministry said earlier this year that it would stop serving meat and fish at official functions. But other ministries have been slow to follow suit.

Governments can do more than lead by example. Portugal passed a law this year requiring a vegan option at public institutions. The UN’s International Resource Panel has called for governments to tax meat products. Researchers at Oxford University found that pricing food according to its climate impact could prevent more than half a million early deaths every year, largely in Europe, the United States, Australia and China. And surveys show that measures restricting meat consumption could be accepted by the public if justified in their interest. But opposition from lobbyists and libertarians remains. Argentina’s beef industry has been hampered in the past decade by government regulation, which included quotas on beef exports. Its cattle farmers are unlikely to welcome more regulation, no matter what is at stake.