With all the problems in the world, Democratic presidential candidates are focusing on — meat.
During a climate change forum hosted by MSNBC on Thursday, longshot candidate Andrew Yang was asked by an audience member about “what policy adjustments” he’d make to “curb expansion and reduce the environmental impact of the cattle industry” in order to “reduce demand.”
“Cattle is very energy-consuming and energy-expensive. And if you project forward on what we would need to do to reduce emissions, you would want to modify Americans’ diets over time,” Yang said.
“Now, some of that is happening naturally through education. I do think it’s difficult to regulate diets. So what you would want to do again is you’d want those cattle producers to have to internalize the cost of emissions. Because if your cattle ends up polluting a lot, which they do, just naturally — we don’t hate them for it. I mean, they’re just big animals. Don’t hate the cattle, hate the — whatever.
“So then, what that would naturally do, and some people are going to hate this, but it would probably make those products more expensive. And that is appropriate because there’s a cost to producing food in that way. And so if you were to make it more expensive, than you would end up changing consumption patterns over time.”
Several Democratic presidential contenders have been taking aim at meat. In another climate change forum earlier this month, several said laws need to be changed.
Sen. Kamala Harris of California was asked if she supports changing “dietary guidelines to reduce the consumption of red meat in light of the impact of climate change.”
“The answer is yes,” she said. “The balance that we have to strike here, frankly, is about what government can and should do around creating incentives and then banning certain behaviors,” she said.
Asked if she’d back “changing the dietary guidelines,” she said yes. “The balance we have to strike is frankly about what the government can and should do around creating incentives, and then banning certain behaviors,” she said.
But she also said: “To be very honest with you, I love cheeseburgers from time to time, I just do.”
As always with Democrats, it’s do as they say, not do as they do.
