Republicans Dream of Red Meat Blockade

By SAM URETSKY

It’s a helluva headline – from the Daily Mail (UK) (4/21/21): nn“How Biden’s climate plan could limit you to eat just one burger a MONTH, cost $3.5K a year per person in taxes, force you to spend $55K on an electric car and ‘crush’ American jobs”

It’s accompanied by a picture of a hamburger, actually a double cheeseburger with bacon, lettuce, pickle and tomato on a seeded bun. It is strangely unappetizing, as if it’s trying out for a spot as the challenger on Man vs. Food (Food Network). The article itself describes the devastating consequences of President Biden’s climate change policies, including cutting red meat consumption by 90%, buying a $55K electric car, spending $5,613 for an electric heat pump, and probably costing taxpayers about $3,500 per year. Evidently Republicans, who won’t read the New York Times or Washington Post, are regular readers of the Daily Mail.

Fox Business News reported that Larry Kudlow, President Trump’s economic adviser said “Biden’s Green New Deal means no meat for the Fourth of July, have grilled Brussels sprouts instead.” Fox News ran banners including “bye-bye burgers under Biden’s climate plan” and “90% of red meat out with Biden climate plan.”

The four-pounds-of-beef story was picked up quickly. US Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) tweeted (4/24): “Joe Biden’s climate plan includes cutting 90% of red meat from our diets by 2030. They want to limit us to about four pounds a year. Why doesn’t Joe stay out of my kitchen?” The tweet got attention, including over 16,800 likes, 4,400 retweets and over 6,100 comments in two days.

The fact checkers response was quick. According to Politico: “A White House official sent over an image of a glistening West Wing Burger. Cooked in the White House mess hall, the thick patty of house-blended beef was nestled between a seeded bun, sliced tomato, red onion and lettuce, with an oversized slab of cheddar cheese spilling over the edges.

“The burger, the official confirmed, was good. The stories about their boss, well … they’re a load of pink slime.”

The Washington Post published a picture from 2009 showing President Obama and then Vice President Biden enjoying a hamburger at Ray’s Hell Burger in Arlington, Va. There is a single patty, with lettuce, tomato, and what appears to be Swiss cheese. Condiments are on the table. The report notes that several press aides tweeted a photo of a grinning Biden flipping burgers at a 2019 Iowa steak fry, along with the caption, “White House to the fact-challenged: where’s the beef?”

And Fox News even issued a sort of apology: “On Friday, we told you about a study from the University of Michigan to give some perspective on President Biden’s ambitious climate change goals … That research, from 2020, found that cutting back how much red meat people eat would have a drastic impact on harmful greenhouse gas emissions. A graphic and a script incorrectly implied that it was part of Biden’s plan for dealing with climate change. That is not the case.”

Implied?  The dictionary (Oxford) defines imply as “Indicate the truth or existence of (something) by suggestion rather than explicit reference:”   As in: Fox News tried to imply that they’re a legitimate news source.

While advocating cutbacks in beef consumption might be ecologically sound, beef farms and ranches represent over 30% of US farms, making up the single largest US agricultural sector. Admittedly, most beef production is in red states, but that’s a lot of votes to sacrifice.

The origin of the story seems to have been a 2020 report from the Center for Biological Diversity, which stated, “Globally as much as 29% of planet-warming greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions come from food production each year, and more than half of those come from meat and dairy. The livestock sector alone accounts for 16.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, representing a significant burden on the climate from within the food system. …

Cutting 90% of beef consumption and replacing 50% of other animal-based foods with plant-based foods in the United States would save more than two billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions from being released into our atmosphere by 2030 — the rough equivalent of taking nearly half the world’s cars off the roads for a year.”

The implication, of course, is that the writers at the Daily Mail keep up with the latest scientific reports, and the reporters at Fox News keep up with the headlines on the Daily Mail, and some people will believe anything.

Sam Uretsky is a writer and pharmacist living in Louisville, Ky. Email sdu01@outlook.com.

From The Progressive Populist, June 1, 2021

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