During a virtual meeting, U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack told members of the North American Agricultural Journalists that the Biden Administration never wanted Americans to eat less beef. The claims come after British news site, Daily Mail published a story with a study from the University of Michigan stating that U.S. citizens may have to reduce meat consumption by 90% in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030.
Donald Trump Jr then stepped in with a tweet:
Vilsack wanted to clear the air, “There is no effort designed to limit people’s intake of beef coming out of President Biden’s White House or coming out of the USDA.” He told the journalists that President Biden had no set-in-stone plans yet, how the proposals didn’t include any ag targets, and they didn’t have policy papers on meat.
There are some people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who think that the answer to reducing greenhouse gas emissions is to stop eating meat. For example, in 2019, 18-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg said in an interview that eating meat was “stealing” her generation’s future.
She says this even though, according to the Farm Bureau, methane emissions from cattle and sheep are only 3.5% of total emissions since 1990. Plus, livestock methane can be used in methane digesters as a source of energy. Also, from 1990 to 2016, total methane emissions per beef cow went down 10%, and per dairy cow went down 25%. This shows that the impact of livestock isn’t as bad as it’s played out to be and farmers are making conscious decisions to be greener.
Vilsack explained that some doctors, individual states, and other places globally are suggesting consumers cut back on meat consumption to combat climate change, but not the U.S. government. “There are other efforts underway internationally, for sure, but not in, at this point in time, the Biden administration, and not certainly at the USDA,” Vilsack said.
