Let's protect the rainforests efficiently.

Petition: Restricting Neuromarketing to Protect Sustainable Consumption and Tropical Rainforests

To: Committee on Petitions, European Parliament (PETI) Subject: Proposal for EU‑level regulation of retail neuromarketing techniques to stop overconsumption and the destruction of rainforests

1. Introduction and Acknowledgement

I, the undersigned EU citizen, welcome and support the European Union's efforts to preserve global biodiversity. I particularly appreciate the financial commitments through initiatives such as the Global Gateway and COP pledges, by which the EU has allocated billions of euros to protect tropical rainforests. This policy is essential in the fight against climate change.

2. Problem Statement: A Contradiction in EU Policy

I wish to draw the Committee's attention to a serious systemic contradiction. While the EU spends large sums to protect tropical forests on the other side of the world, it allows the deliberate stimulation of overconsumption within its own borders. This policy is hypocritical: with one hand we extinguish fires, while with the other — through unregulated neuromarketing that increases demand — we fan the flames.

3. The Link: Neuromarketing — Overconsumption — Deforestation

Neuromarketing uses psychological and neurological insights to bypass consumers' conscious decision‑making mechanisms and trigger impulse purchases. This artificially generated overconsumption has a direct impact on global food prices:

• Increased and often wasteful demand keeps food prices high.

• High world market prices make it highly profitable for entrepreneurs in South America (especially in Brazil) to illegally burn tropical forests and convert them into pasture or feed crop (soy) production.

• Consequence: The subconscious overconsumption driven by European consumers directly fuels deforestation in the Amazon.

4. Objectionable Techniques

I ask the Committee to review and restrict the following retail techniques that exploit consumer vulnerability:

• Artificially enlarged shopping carts: Visual designs that create the impression we have purchased little, encouraging additional spending.

• Neon and aggressive packaging colors: Use of biologically attention‑grabbing colors that override rational, nutrient‑based choice.

• Sensory manipulations: Artificial scents (e.g., the smell of freshly baked bread at the entrance) and store layouts designed to create a maze effect that prevent quick, purposeful shopping.

5. Demands

• Regulation: The EU should adopt a directive to limit "manipulative neuromarketing tools that encourage overconsumption" in retail.

• Coordinated strategy: Funds spent on forest protection must not be undermined by regulatory gaps in the internal market. Consumer protection should become an integral part of global climate strategy.

• Transparency: Require companies to disclose the psychological techniques they use to influence purchasing decisions.

Closing thought

We cannot expect developing countries to preserve their rainforests while we tolerate, within the EU internal market, food supply chains that use deliberate psychological tricks to stimulate the unsustainable demand that causes forest destruction.

Respectfully, Zoltán Bíró

Supporters can sign the petition after it has been officially accepted by the European Parliament's Committee on Petitions.

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