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**Germans told to eat less meat to save planet** By Kate Connolly Berlin

For a nation that loves its sausages and schnitzel, the message is not a welcome one. Germans have been urged to rethink their meat-eating habits if they want to help the planet. Germany’s federal environment agency has issued a strong advisory for people to eat meat only on special occasions and otherwise to model their diet on that of Mediterranean countries. Germans are among the highest meat consumers in Europe, getting about 39% of their total calorie intake from meat and meat products, compared with 25% in Italy. “We must rethink our high meat consumption,” said Andreas Troge, president of the UBA, the government’s advisory body on environmental issues. **He said agriculture was responsible for about 15% of Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions and meat production was the most energy-intensive form of farming. With that in mind, he suggested that cutting down on meat would be a logical step forward. “It hardly means sacrificing quality of life,” said Troge. “I don’t believe that the Italians are particularly unhappier ****than us as a result [of eating less meat].” **
 *  Troge’s comments were criticised by farming experts and politicians. Edmund Geisen, agricultural adviser to the liberal Free Democrats, said ““Andreas Troge should stop trying to damage the nation’s appetite by accusing our agricultural production.” Hilmar Steppat, of Germany’s vegetarian association, VeBu, welcomed the move, saying: “It’s good to see politicians are finally waking up to the fact that the amount of meat we eat is unsustainable.” He added that although the number of vegetarians had increased from 0.4% in 1983 to about 10% today, Germans were still very big consumers of meat. **


 * Findings by the World Wildlife Fund also support the claim that meat production is environmentally damaging. In its recent Living Planet report, it said a single kilogram of beef requires 16,000 litres of water, taking into account a three-year lifespan for a cow, the grain it eats in its lifetime, and the water it drinks. **