Research conducted by Kieskompas and commissioned by ProVeg Netherlands has found that the majority of Dutch people support the idea of a transition towards a more plant-based diet. It also found that 20% of young people surveyed said they would like to give up meat, compared to 16% for the general population. Of the respondents, 2% were already vegan.
The study shows that two-thirds of people said they supported the transition to more plant-based diets, with the majority in favour across age groups, political viewpoints, and regions. The most common reasons for wishing to eat fewer animal products were reducing animal suffering, followed by preventing deforestation, avoiding species extinction, and protecting wild fish populations.
If everyone who said they wanted to decrease their meat consumption did so, Dutch meat consumption would be reduced by 30%, but this is unlikely to happen, as people may know that saying they want to reduce meat consumption is the politically correct answer to give, even if they do not mean it. If they did, though, this would save 1.6 megatons of CO2 per year, about a third of the government’s emissions reduction target for the Dutch livestock sector by 2030. It is also possible that most people who define themselves as reducetarians stopped reducing meat consumption some time ago so they no longer fall into that category — as hardly any of those defining themselves as such would be measuring their intake of animal products to ensure they are constantly reducing it — so research that still uses this category may need to be revised.
However, meat and dairy continue to dominate Dutch diets, with research showing that 61% of the protein consumed in the country is animal-based, while the government has set a target for a 50/50 ratio of plant-based vs animal proteins consumed by 2030. However, in May, it was reported that sales of animal meat at Dutch supermarkets had fallen by 16.4% since 2020.
Pablo Moleman, strategic director of ProVeg Netherlands, said, “The already existing desire to eat more plant-based food is very large. This shows that it is possible to make the Netherlands much more plant-based, without anyone having to be forced or convinced. It is up to NGOs, governments, and companies to help this group to turn their desire into behaviour.”
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