Economic and Environmental Consequences of a Transformation towards Vegetarian Diets in Germany

Master's Thesis from the year 2020 in the subject Economy - Environment economics, grade: 2,7, University of Hannover (Entwicklungs- und Agrarökonomik), language: English, abstract: This masterthesis considers and analyses the economic and environmental consequences of vegetarian diets in Germany.

The world is slowly but surely reaching the collective realization that an ecological catastrophe is inevitably which also leads to an economic and thus a social catastrophe. Sustainability, environmental protection and climate change are no longer niche topics. Environmental awareness is changing from individual lifestyle to social movement. Sustainability from consumer trend to economic factor. Environment is becoming a mainstream topic, a new criterion for good and bad, right and wrong. It is becoming the lowest common denominator for an entire generation. Everyone is affected, everyone must take a stand . In addition to these, the aspect of health is as well one of the most important Megatrends of our society today. The personal responsibility and health competence of the individual has increased - at the same time is health once again becoming more the responsibility of economy and politics. Because healthy or unhealthy environmental influences, food, or expenditures for medical facilities and education campaigns are not only subject to individual. In order to harmonize environment, society, economy and health, people have to change their way of consumption and the economy their way of production. A good foundation for this is provided by Nutrition Ecology, an interdisciplinary scientific discipline that attempts to balance all four dimensions.

The first part of the work presents the vegetarian diet, its history and the different forms and motivations. In addition current numbers and characteristics of vegetarians living in Germany are presented in the last part of Chapter 2. In Chapter 3 a comprehensive description of the current meat consumption and production in Germany and knowledge about the meat replacement market is presented. The environmental impact of the meat industry is discussed in detail in Chapter 4. And finally, in Chapter 5 a model is presented, Nutrition Ecology. Using the four dimensions, the impacts on economy and environment of a transformation towards vegetarian diets are shown.