Healthy Food Manifesto drawn up

On Thursday 16 July, a Healthy Food Manifesto was presented to election committees of political parties on behalf of dozens of organisations, including Transition Coalition Food, TAPP Coalition, Greenhouse Horticulture Netherlands, Nature and Environmental Federations and Heart Patients Netherlands. The organisations call on political parties to indicate in their election programmes how the Dutch will eat healthier. In other words: more fruit and vegetables and less soft drinks and meat. This will reduce healthcare costs and environmental pollution.

The organisations want the Netherlands to become one of the healthiest countries in terms of nutrition. Because that way we will emerge healthy from the crisis, also from an economic point of view. The organizations support a proposal from a government letter from Hoekstra to the House of Representatives dated 22 April 2020 for healthy and sustainable food, included in the Broad Social Reviews. This includes a consumption tax for soft drinks and meat and a subsidy or VAT reduction on fruit and vegetables.

Healthy food cheaper, unhealthy food more expensive

The organisations want to make healthy and sustainable food such as vegetables, fruit and meat substitutes cheaper through subsidies and VAT reductions. Unhealthy food and food with a high environmental footprint should become more expensive: first of all, for example, sugary drinks and meat. There will then be compensation for low incomes and farmers. They will be given the means to make their businesses more sustainable - less environmental impact also contributes to our health.

Fruit and vegetables for lunch

Because the greatest potential for increased consumption of fruit and vegetables lies with lunch, the organizations ask political parties that the government, like other EU countries, will promote a healthy lunch culture with mainly fruit and vegetables and less animal products. This can be done by means of a national subsidy and a tax exemption for -free - healthy company lunches.

In addition, the organisations state that supermarkets should be obliged to focus at least 75 percent of their advertising on healthy food (within Disk of Five) and sustainable food, children's marketing with food outside the Disk of Five should be banned, online and freedom of choice should be paramount. 

www.natuurenmilieufederaties.nl