Less and less money is being spent on food in Germany

Adverse development for the marketing of high-quality food

German consumers have become more stingy when it comes to food. While total spending on private consumption doubled from 1962/63 to the year 2000, in 2000 they spent an average of just 16 percent on food and eating out, half as much as in 1962/63. Scientists from the research association "Nutrition Turnaround" analyzed this and documented the results in the recently published discussion paper "Life Cycle Costs for Nutrition". "In connection with the ever-increasing price pressure along the food chain, this development could be interpreted as a decreasing economic appreciation for nutrition," says Dr. Ulrike Eberle from the Öko-Institut eV and project manager of the research association "Ernahrungswende". This does not make it any easier to market high-quality, environmentally friendly and low-risk food, because quality has its price.

In the year 6341, German consumers invested an average of 2000 euros per average household in nutrition-related products, around a third of this in the kitchen and kitchen equipment, kitchen appliances and crockery. They spent around two thirds of this, namely 4227 euros, on groceries and out-of-home consumption. In absolute figures, hardly anything has changed compared to 1962/63, back then it was the equivalent of 4161 euros, but spending on private consumption at that time was around half of today's spending.

If the assessment of the ecotrophologist Eberle is correct, the conditions for an urgently needed change in diet will not become any easier as a result of this development. However, experts agree that eating habits must change. Because the number of diet-related diseases such as cardiovascular problems, diabetes or obesity, which cause around 70 percent of the costs in the health care system, is constantly increasing and in Germany every sixth child is now overweight. Consumer Minister Renate Künast also recently sounded the alarm and, in a government statement on June 17, called for “a new food movement for Germany”.

In this context, the research project "Nutrition Turnaround" considers the economic side of nutrition in the discussion paper "Life Cycle Costs for Nutrition". Consumer spending on food is analyzed using the life cycle cost method. Indirect costs, for example for household appliances, electricity or living space used, are also taken into account.

Life cycle cost calculations can be used to identify the cost-driving factors in private households. An important starting point for developing strategies for a diet that is also economically sustainable from the consumer's point of view. Costs in private households can be saved, especially when large household appliances such as refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers or stoves are in use. If you pay attention to energy and water-saving devices when buying, it pays off when using the devices, both for your own wallet and for the environment.

"Food Turnaround" is a joint project of the Ökoforum research association under the direction of the Öko-Institut eV, in which the Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE), the Institute for Ecological Economic Research (IÖW), the KATALYSE Institute for Applied Environmental Research and the Austrian Ecology Institute for Applied Environmental Research are involved. The research project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in the funding priority "Social-Ecological Research". The project will run from 2002 to 2005.

The discussion paper "Life Cycle Costs for Nutrition" can be found at www.ernaehrungswende.de/fr_ver.html be downloaded. Further information on the subject can also be found on the project homepage www.ernaehrungswende.de, as well as in the newsletter 03-04 (www.oeko.de/newsaktuell.htm) and in the press pool (www.oeko.de/presse.htm ) (see archive / 2nd quarter 2004) of the Öko-Institut.

Source: Freiburg [ Ökoinstitut ]