There’s an urgent need to transform global food systems to align with planetary health. This engaging DLD Munich 2025 session examines the role of major retailers in driving change.
Moderator Eckart von Hirschhausen (Foundation Healthy Planet, Healthy People) is joined by Julia Adou (ALDI Süd) and Alexander Liedke (Lidl), who represent two of Europe’s largest supermarket discount chains.
Hirschhausen, a trained physician, highlights the enormous impact of everyday food choices on both human health and biodiversity, pointing to meat consumption as “the main driver of loss of biodiversity, of deforestation” – but also preventable diseases.
“If everybody in Germany would start on a plant-based diet, we would have 150,000 less premature deaths of cardiac disease and stroke”, he says. “It’s a typical win-win.”
Julia Adou highlights that ALDI Süd decided to stop selling fresh meat from lower animal welfare categories. This bold move came as a shock to some people “because they thought fresh meat will be much more expensive”, she recounts. “But luckily our competitors followed, and we had the chance to change the total system in Germany.”
Alexander Liedke discusses Lidl’s approach to plant-based diets through price parity. “We just lowered the price of plant-based proteins to the same level as animal-based proteins,” he explains, removing price as a barrier for consumers.
Initially Lidl absorbed the cost difference, Liedke says, but the growing demand for plant-based products is now driving prices down naturally. “Sooner or later”, he adds, “plant-based products in most categories will become cheaper than animal ones.”
The session also touches upon preventing food waste, the true cost of food production, and more.
