Less meat to save the planet, or especially your wallet. If the French say they are consuming less and less meat, environmental considerations are not necessarily the main reasons, according to figures from the latest meat consumption barometer conducted by Climate Action Network and Harris Interactive.
French who seem convinced: no less than 81% believe that limiting meat consumption has a positive impact on the environment. A large part of those surveyed (86%) now believe that they consume responsibly and 82% even trust their habits, assuring that the environmental situation would improve if everyone consumed like them.
According to the barometer, almost six out of ten French people (57%) say they consume less meat than three years ago. Today, 27% state that they eat meat at least once a day (-6 points compared to 2021) and 62% eat it at least once a week, but not every day (+6 points). There are only 2% of French people who never consume it.
An effect of inflation?
But, if we ask them what motivates them to reduce meat consumption, the economic argument is the first one they cite, 58% of the people surveyed state that they eat less meat to save because it is an expensive product. Inflation has gone through this: this figure rises 25 points compared to 2021. Considerations around health (37%), animal welfare (35%) or environmental protection (35%) come largely behind of economic issues.
And in the future? If more than half of the French (53%) say that they will not eat more or less meat than today in the coming years, 39% of them nevertheless declare that they want to reduce their consumption. But, once again, inflation is not far behind: the economic argument is the first cited (53%, +27 points compared to 2021), ahead of the environment (45%, +6 points), animal welfare ( 42%, stable) and health (38%, -9 points).
*Survey carried out online from March 10 to 14, 2023 using the quota method, from a sample of 1078 representative French people aged 18 and over
Source: BFM TV
