When discussing far-reaching policies that could affect the lives of millions, we must always ask questions
The War on Meat is back in action.
One year ago, I wrote about the “War on Meat” taking place around the West, where government agencies in tandem, with several plant-based activist groups, have made a concerted push to demonize meat. Some plans that they have put forward consist of taxing meat as a means of reducing meat consumption.
With the recently unveiled “Green New Deal”, the war drums pounding against beef have only gotten louder. Just like its 20th-century predecessor, the Green New Deal is an economically illiterate legislative package. Robert Murphy wrote two fantastic articles debunking many of the flawed policies included in the Green New Deal such as profligate spending and regulation.
However, this article will focus on the more social engineering aspects of the Green New Deal. Specifically, its anti-meat vision. Blame Meat for Global Warming
In the Green New Deal’s FAQ sheet, there was a section highlighting the differences between achieving “100% clean and renewable” energy and “100% renewable” energy. In the Green New Deal advocates’ view, emissions from “farting cows” are what’s hindering the achievement of a purely clean and renewable energy source.
This assertion has been met with ridicule throughout the Internet. However, the idea of a government program that would compel ranchers and farmers to slaughter farm animals for the sake of complying with a political agenda is not so far-fetched. In fact, it’s not even unprecedented.
In the original New Deal introduced in the 1930s, the federal government took extraordinary measures to fight the Great Depression. One of them was the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 which saw the federal government carry out “emergency livestock reductions.” New Dealers reasoned that there was a glut of pigs which was responsible for keeping livestock prices low. In its zeal to “save” the country, the government started buying and mass slaughtering livestock. Tom Woods details how the AAA led to the slaughter of “some six million pigs”, all in the name of trying to keep prices high during a time of crisis.
