Let It Stand: The Music Legend Calls On EU to Scrap Ban on Veggie ‘Burgers’.

The famous musician has added his voice for the European Union to turn down efforts to outlaw the use of terms such as “banger” and “burger” for meat-free alternatives.

A Contentious Ruling

The former Beatle has joined forces with eight members of parliament who have written to the European Commission, stating that a ban approved in October by the European Parliament would address a nonexistent problem while hindering progress on environmental targets.

The new rules would signal the termination for the use of terms such as steak, burger, sausage or escalope when describing products derived from plants or alternative proteins. Suggested alternatives include the less appetising “discs” or “cylinders”.

“To mandate that burgers and sausages are ‘vegetarian’ should be sufficient for reasonable consumers to grasp what they are eating. This also fosters attitudes which are vital to our health and that of the planet,” commented the musician.

A Longstanding Advocate

The musician is one of the world’s most high-profile proponents of a vegetarian diet. Alongside his wife Linda established the Linda McCartney meat-free food line in 1991, and he and their daughters Mary and Stella started the global “Vegan Monday” initiative to persuade people to cut down on animal products.

Linda McCartney sausages and burgers have been a key component in a global shift of increased interest in products to replace meat, despite the fact that investment has declined since a bubble during the COVID-19 crisis.

Industry Backlash

However, alongside the rise of meat alternatives has come a counter-movement, notably from the lobbying agricultural and meat processing industries, which are concerned about the possible impact of falling sales on jobs.

The EU Parliament ruled 355–247 to outlaw “meat-evoking” names from being used on vegetarian items. According to reports, a proponent of the ban, a member of the conservative European People’s party, stated to the parliament: “It is my view that steak, cutlet or sausage are products from our livestock farms. Period. No laboratory substitutes, no vegan options.”

Broader Implications

The petition backed by the McCartneys and the British MPs suggested that the European regulations might compel Britain into changes as well, because the markets and regulation are still so intertwined despite the UK’s exit from the EU.

The EU has a longstanding “protected designation of origin” system for blocking businesses from benefiting from the titles of products linked to certain locales, such as champagne, Greek olives or Parma ham. But the bid to restrict the use of everyday language is far more contentious.

Linguistic Challenges

Several of the words that would be proscribed have malleable meanings. For instance, lexicons describe a sausage firstly in relation to meat but additionally as “an object formed like a sausage”. Even more problematically, the key meaning of “burger” is often given as a “flat round mass of minced meat or vegetables”.

The eight politicians backing the letter include former opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn and former environmental party leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay.