The first city in the world to do such a thing, Haarlem has decided that residents should never be allowed to see billboards promoting hamburger, for instance, because then they will eat more of these things and harm the environment.

Set to go into effect in 2024, Haarlem's meat advertising ban was concocted by GroenLinks, a "green" political party in The Netherlands. Councilor Ziggy Klazes is credited with putting it together, and here is what he told the Dutch newspaper Trouw about it:

"Meat is very harmful to the environment. We cannot tell people that there is a climate crisis and encourage them to buy products that are part of it."

One wonders who the "we" is, in this context. Last we checked, private companies that pay to advertise their own meat-based foods in public have nothing to do with any type of "we," meaning the government, encouraging people to eat meat.

Klazes makes it sound as though the freedom to advertise meat in public somehow constitutes an official government endorsement of meat. This same false and deceptive framing is often used by prohibitionists, by the way, to justify restricting people's freedoms with "controlled substances."