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If people do this they will probably invent a tax of 1000 per year to subsidize big ag
Per capita meat consumption is already down overall in Germany in the last 10 or so years (despite a small uptick in the last two). We do not need to preemptively doom about something that can work
here is the link to the original study:
method section https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/677d312731ae664a70dacd6c/6a70ba9edadd78d8fc6e62f2_Madre-Brava-Healthy-Returns-Appendix.pdf
couldn't find a link to the raw data. maybe someone (ahem, me) should ask for it.
I'm interested because i find that meatless diet can be quite expensive, unless you stick to hyper local, hyper seasonal.
That is a common misconception. The costs are generally lower both in real world and modeling. Local or seasonal has less to do with it. Things like rice, tofu, beans, lentils, etc are generally cheaper. Things like beyond meat are only pricier because of R&D costs and economies of scale. Even still those have reached parity in a number of countries
Evidence from studies published between 2000 and 2025 indicates that whole-food PBDs [plant-based diets] are generally associated with lower food expenditures than omnivorous diets across diverse geographic contexts
https://www.academia.edu/3067-1345/3/1/10.20935/AcadNutr8137#sec7-Acad.Nutri.-3-319439
For some specific studies
It found that in high-income countries:
• Vegan diets were the most affordable and reduced food costs by up to one third.
• Vegetarian diets were a close second.
• Flexitarian diets with low amounts of meat and dairy reduced costs by 14%.
• By contrast, pescatarian diets increased costs by up to 2%.
https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2021-11-11-sustainable-eating-cheaper-and-healthier-oxford-study
For some studies looking at spending around the world
Compared to meat eaters, results show that “true” vegetarians do indeed report lower food expenditures
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921800915301488?via=ihub [US]
Based on primary data (n = 1040) collected through an online survey, representative of the Portuguese population, through logistic regressions, it was possible to conclude that plant-based consumers, particularly vegan, are associated with lower food expenditures compared to omnivorous consumers. In fact, plant-based consumers are shown to spend less than all other consumers assessed
https://agrifoodecon.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40100-022-00224-9
Thanks for the reply and links. Thats really interesting! I just restarted eating meats after a 10 year hiatus and apparently i budget meat in the oh-i-feel-fancy-today budget. It seems i misattributed the effect of inflation specifically to veggies. Anyways, here is the table from from Springmann et al 2021 (cited in the oxford link above). I converted 2017 US $ to 2026 EUR (shady, i know) and then to EUR/kg to get a somewhat familiar metric. It seems somewhat plausible:
https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:95ab5488-5945-4e83-8871-9c54fa2943e5
| Development scenario | Unit | Food group | Region | Year | Stats | Value | EUR (2026) | EUR/kg | |
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| | SSP2_BASE | USD/100g | staples | DEU | 2017 | mean | 0.266212 | 0.23160444 | 2.3160444 | | SSP2_BASE | USD/100g | vegetables | DEU | 2017 | mean | 0.289675 | 0.25201725 | 2.5201725 | | SSP2_BASE | USD/100g | fruits | DEU | 2017 | mean | 0.35201 | 0.3062487 | 3.062487 | | SSP2_BASE | USD/100g | fish | DEU | 2017 | mean | 1.70926 | 1.4870562 | 14.870562 | | SSP2_BASE | USD/100g | sugar | DEU | 2017 | mean | 0.130812 | 0.11380644 | 1.1380644 | | SSP2_BASE | USD/100g | legumes | DEU | 2017 | mean | 0.343277 | 0.29865099 | 2.9865099 | | SSP2_BASE | USD/100g | poultry | DEU | 2017 | mean | 0.412988 | 0.35929956 | 3.5929956 | | SSP2_BASE | USD/100g | pork | DEU | 2017 | mean | 1.18281 | 1.0290447 | 10.290447 | | SSP2_BASE | USD/100g | eggs | DEU | 2017 | mean | 0.282612 | 0.24587244 | 2.4587244 | | SSP2_BASE | USD/100g | nuts | DEU | 2017 | mean | 0.732499 | 0.63727413 | 6.3727413 | | SSP2_BASE | USD/100g | dairy | DEU | 2017 | mean | 0.209272 | 0.18206664 | 1.8206664 | | SSP2_BASE | USD/100g | oils | DEU | 2017 | mean | 0.660179 | 0.57435573 | 5.7435573 | | SSP2_BASE | USD/100g | beef&lamb | DEU | 2017 | mean | 1.34651 | 1.1714637 | 11.714637 |
Note. (in case it might be useful) Table was converted from selection in libreoffice calc to markdown via
$ xclip -out -selection "clipboard" | ./tsv2md.awk | xclip -selection "clipboard"
with ./tsv2md.awk from https://gaultier.github.io/blog/tip_of_day_3.html:
#!/usr/bin/env -S awk -F '\t' -f
{
printf("|");
for (i = 1; i <= NF; i++) {
# Note: if a field contains the character `|`,
# it will mess up the table.
# In this case, we should replace this character
# by something else e.g. `,`:
gsub(/\|/, ",", $i);
printf(" %s |", $i);
}
printf("\n");
}
NR==1 { # Output the delimiting line
printf("|");
for(i = 1; i <= NF; i++) {
printf("
***
| ");
}
printf("\n");
}
Inflation is actually significantly higher on many animal products, so the gap is almost certainly stronger than that study too
Partially because of problems everyone has been warning about that the industry around the world has happily ignored in order to keep growing. For instance, for beef, drought related to climate change has been a big factor. For various different types of meat because of disease which these system help create and spread
And increases to plant prices affect meat more because meat production inherently requires more plants for feed (it takes a lot of feed per farm animal since most of the feed energy is lost)
How much could they save if they stopped drinking beer?
Beer consumption is declining in Germany for a while now.
The average german drinks 84 liters of beer a year. You can get good beer for ~2€/l in your local supermarket. So you would save ~~42€~~ 168€ a year. Maybe more if you drink that beer in a pub or restaurant, maybe less if you go for cheap beer. Even less if you are visiting Onkel Horst a lot, he will always offer you a few beers.
Edit: Don't do math after 84 liters of beer
84L * 2€/L = 168€, no?
Sorry, I was right on track to reach my 84 liters of beer
2 €/L * 84 L = 42€ ?
On the other hand, it could also be a lot more prr liter if you start brewing yourself and have to factor in power and bottles and other resources 🥲 at least the taste is good..
this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2026
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