Animal welfare organization Four Paws is raising concerns about the “overconsumption” of meat in the Netherlands as new research reveals that the average Dutch person eats more meat in 3.5 months than is healthy and sustainable for a whole year.

Four Paws says April 18 marked “Meat Exhaustion Day”: the day on which the average Dutch person has already consumed more meat than what is recommended for an entire year. The concept of Meat Exhaustion Day is established by comparing the average actual meat consumption per capita against the advised levels.

This is based on animal welfare, health risks, and climate impact.

A sustainable and healthy diet would contain about 15 kilos of meat per person annually, according to guidelines from the likes of the Nutrition Center and the EAT-Lancet committee.

However, the average Dutch person eats more than 53 kilos of meat per year. 

The organization points to the Netherlands’ high meat consumption as contributing to increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers. 

It also impacts animal welfare and environmental issues, as livestock farming is responsible for approximately 14.5% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

Awareness and action

“Meat Exhaustion Day is a wake-up call. It shows that we are – literally – eating our planet. We therefore encourage people to eat plant-based food more often. Every meal counts,” says Petra Sleven, director of Four Paws. 

“If we take animal welfare seriously, we cannot possibly continue on this scale. Working toward smaller-scale and more animal-friendly ways of meat production is the only way to address that problem, while also providing relief for major issues in other dossiers, such as nitrogen, for example.”