@emmacalvert.bsky.social
Back in Belfast after 15 wonderful years working and living in Brussels. Formerly food @ European Consumer Organisation (@beuc.bsky.social) trying to make healthier choices easier for all! Still dipping a toe into EU Food Policy.
Some startling stats today at the All-Ireland Obesity Action Forum’s conference on the impacts of digital marketing.
💰 Digital advertising spend due to be $1 trillion by 2028
🇮🇪 Children spend 4.5 hours on average on digital devices (some up to 10 hrs!)
🍟 Exposed to unhealthy food ads every 4 mins
REVEALED: The EU spends hundreds of times more public money on high-emissions beef and dairy than legumes and nuts through its common agricultural policy (CAP) subsidies, according to new figures published today by Foodrise.
Read the new report: foodrise.org.uk/CAPCrossroads/
An infographic from Our World in Data titled "Global land use for food production" uses a series of stacked horizontal bar charts to visualize the distribution of Earth's surface and the disproportionate land requirements of livestock. The first bar shows Earth's surface is 71% ocean and 29% land (141 million km²); the land surface is then broken down into 76% habitable land, 10% glaciers, and 14% barren land. Of the habitable land, 45% (48 million km²) is used for agriculture, while 38% is forests and 13% is shrubland. The agricultural land bar reveals a major disparity: 80% (38 million km²) is dedicated to livestock (meat, dairy, and textiles) including grazing land and cropland for feed, while only 16% is used for crops for direct human consumption and 4% for non-food crops. Finally, two smaller bars at the bottom contrast this land use with nutritional output, showing that while livestock uses 80% of agricultural land, it only provides 17% of global calories and 38% of global protein, whereas plant-based foods provide 83% of calories and 62% of protein.
80% of agricultural land is used for livestock (and textiles), yet this huge land use provides only 17% of our calories and 38% of our protein.
16% of the land used for crops provides 83% of our calories and 62% of our protein. It's past time we rethink what we eat.
EU #CAP farm subsidies overwhelmingly go to those who are already rich, and not enough support reaches those who really need it
Farmers on the brink of bankruptcy, small agroecological farms, and all those who want to transition to more sustainable practices – these need real support
Why can sugary cereals or even candies proudly boast about vitamin D or ‘no fat’?
Well because the EU hasn’t done its job…for *17* years. Nutritional standards - ‘nutrient profiles’ - would’ve stopped these kinds of misleading claims on labels but the EU has missed the deadline since.. 19/01/2009🎂
"Eating less meat remains one of the fastest, easiest & cheapest ways to cut emissions... It’s especially important as many other climate solutions become more expensive, politically fraught or unavailable…
It’s not possible to separate our own health from that of the planet."
[Also: dairy = meat!]
Oh wow… where to start..
Red meat and cheese (!) prioritised and put on the same level as broccoli and carrots
Butter above bananas
And whole grains at the very bottom… 🙄
Making America confused again
🚨Excellent new report on influencer marketing from my former colleagues exposing the myriad ways food brands are using the powerful sway of influencers to push kids+teens towards junk food.
👉As brands increasingly engage these marketing tactics, regulators need to take the issue in hand, urgently!
Getting restaurants to serve more plant-based food can have big climate impacts.
26.12.2025 15:30 — 👍 15 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
🍬‘One portion = Happiness!’
Great that Haribo have made giant stuffed toy versions of their sweets…🙄 Now they can market to kids *inside* their bedrooms.
This is of course a company who claim they don’t market to under 16s
Maybe some Irish and EU policymakers could pick up a copy of this kid’s book I found today..
Which seems to have a better grasp of what needs to happen to livestock agriculture in Ireland…
For anyone claiming to care about farmers’ livelihoods or food prices for the consumer, THIS is the key to the answer: tackling the climate crisis. Resources and efforts should be (laser) focused… tick tock… ⏰
18.12.2025 15:56 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
But not at all convinced by the Commission’s plans to work on food information…
🤨Portion sizes (unrealistic, set by industry),
🤨Digital info (useless for busy consumers),
🤨Focus on processing only (nutrition is crucial too!)
🚥Of course no mention of the most effective label out there- #NutriScore
♥️ Good to see diets haven’t been totally ignored in the new EU ‘Safe Hearts Plan’ but still so much untapped potential to address #foodenvironments
Hoping in particular the evaluation of unhealthy food marketing to kids will indeed lead to a proposal for stricter rules (how could it not?!)
In the UK in 2022 (most recent year for data),
"115,000 deaths were associated with unhealthy diets. Of these, 49,000 were associated with excess consumption of dairy, red meat, and processed meat."
@lancetcountdown.bsky.social Data Sheet 2025 lancetcountdown.org/wp-content/u...
Food corporations built a system where junk is cheap, everywhere, and aggressively marketed.
The diets they profit off are killing people - 800,000+ deaths every year in Europe - while public health costs explode.
#EUAgriFoodDays #FeedPeopleNotAgribusiness
🍫 When your chocolate bar isn’t ‘chocolate’ anymore…
Cocoa production is acutely affected by the climate crisis and manufacturers are responding by dropping the % of cocoa solids in their products..
Expect to see more of this as temps rise unabated..
www.confectionerynews.com/Article/2025...
A majority of #consumers in Germany want mandatory #labeling of all food products using the traffic light system #NutriScore, according to a comprehensive survey. Almost all consumers (91%) are already familiar with the #nutrition label… (1/2) www.foodwatch.org/de/fuenf-jah... #label
12.12.2025 18:50 — 👍 5 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 1
These two stories are somehow connected. Apparently, if you lobby tirelessly for more pollution & ecological wreckage, that’s exactly what you get.
11.12.2025 08:46 — 👍 217 🔁 108 💬 1 📌 3
A reprieve (for how long?) for the ridiculous veggie burger name ban
But what a colossal waste of political energy spent on a such a farcical attempt to undermine plant based options 😑
www.politico.eu/article/eu-v...
Today it's exactly 6 years ago that EU Commission President Von der Leyen announced the European Green Deal, which she called "Europe's Man on the Moon moment" 🎂
Von der Leyen's priority today? Acting on corporate demands for #deregulation, recklessly rolling back environment and health standards 😡
At this month’s AGRIFISH Council, ministers must send a clear signal to the @ec.europa.eu and support the modernisation of the EU animal welfare legislation for farm animals.
Why? Read along. 🧵
🎯
Very sick of passing this bus stop ad with my little ones this month (obviously they think it’s great - ‘Santa!!’)
If junk food ads on tv are worth regulating then junk food ads outdoors are too
Ireland’s water is going green, yet the EU just approved YET another nitrates derogation...
Rural communities have spoken: they want clean rivers, not more pollution.
Science and public health are clear. It’s time to enforce the rules and safeguard Ireland’s waters.
Press release & letter below👇
Recommendations from the report suggest:
⚖️ Universal basic income
🥓 Taxes on meat
🌱 Subsidies for healthy plant-based foods
As the EU frivously debates the names of veggie sausages and burgers, it feels like we’re a lonnng way away from the political seriousness urgently needed…
👉‘All the environmental crises were worsening as the global population grows and required more food and energy, most of which was produced in ways that pollute the planet and destroy the natural world, the experts said.
A sustainable world was possible, they said, but required political courage.’
No ham in hamburgers, no dogs in hot dogs - and consumers get it. The EU should focus on promoting sustainable diets, not on policing words and making obvious obstacles to plant-based foods. CONCITO supports this call against the "veggie burger ban" 🍔🌱 #noconfusion
09.12.2025 12:47 — 👍 17 🔁 5 💬 2 📌 0
Ireland's nitrates derogation & water quality — survey reveals public value clean freshwaters & have negative attitudes to raising farming allowance on nitrates
@epaireland.bsky.social find agriculture is a primary source of nitrogen pollution in our waters
www.antaisce.org/news/public-...
🚨Industrial agriculture consumes most of our food, while millions go hungry in Europe.
Most EU farmland isn’t supporting people - it’s feeding factory farms.
That’s land we need to grow real food and nourish communities.
#EUAgriFoodDays #FeedPeopleNotAgribusiness
‘The ignoring of facts, the sidelining of scientists and the breezy assertions, repeated ad nauseum, that Irish agriculture is ‘sustainable’ are largely responsible for the mess Irish farming finds itself in.’
💯
