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A challenge to HSUS’ Meatless Monday claims
University of California-Davis air quality specialist Frank Mitloehner spoke at a recent beef methane conference in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is reportedly working to spread Meatless Mondays by targeting the institutional foodservice sector.
According to a report on POLITICO, HSUS claims success in getting 200 school districts across the country to sign on to the Meatless Monday concept. They’re also focused on hospitals, senior homes and corporate cafeterias.
On its website, HSUS lists “the environment” as one of the main reasons to forgo eating meat on Mondays. The group claims animal agriculture is one of the “largest contributors” to climate change and greenhouse gases.
However, Frank Mitloehner, University of California-Davis air quality specialist, tells Brownfield that Meatless Mondays will actually have a very small impact on overall greenhouse gases.
“Our calculations are, if 300-million Americans would stop eating beef on Monday—or meat, in general, on Monday—we would reduce our carbon footprint as a nation by zero-point-three percent (0.3%),” he says.
Which is pretty insignificant compared to the major greenhouse gas emitters, Mitloehner says.
“Compared to, let’s say, 26 percent of contributions from transportation—from your vehicle use—or 30 percent from heating and cooling homes and so forth.”
Mitloehner says there is a lot of misinformation being spread about the carbon footprint of animal agriculture. He says leading scientists as well as the EPA have quantified the impacts of U.S. livestock production on all greenhouse gas emissions at only 4.2 percent.
One indication of how HSUS has stepped up its promotion of Meatless Mondays is the number of HSUS staffers working on the initiative. POLITICO reports that number has expanded from one employee in 2011 to 15 in 2016.
AUDIO: Frank Mitloehner
In trying to insert itself into the farm community with its Ag Council, thee HSUS says that 95% of the people involved with the HSUS eat meat. I question the validity of this, but it really does not matter, because there is no question that the policy makers in the HSUS are either vegan or vegetarian. This is especially true of Wayne Purcell and Paul Shapiro, the most prominent spokesman for the HSUS. Both of them are avowed vegans.
A vegan does not believe in eating meat or using animal products. So they don’t wear leather, fur products and think ice cream will kill you. These are the hard core animal rights fanatics. They may try to appear reasonable, but the HSUS sacrificially has adopted the Mao philosophy of 3 steeps forward and 1 back. Right now they are backing off.
The question is, can a meat producer deal with them. The answer is no. Just look at the biggest promotion of the HSUS, meatless Monday. They promote meatless Monday by saying meat will kill you and the environment. So, a meat producer should have a hard time working with people who say they are trying to poison their customers.
If you want to see who farmers are dealing with, you should read some of Purcell’s writings. One of his latest promotes fake meat. He talks about how plant protein can be chemically modified to take the place of meat. It seems inconceivable that a meat producer will ever be able to compromise with an organization that wants to shut him down.
If the HSUS is really intent on working with farmers, the first thing it should do is get rid of Purcell and Shapiro. These men destroy any creditability the HSUS has with meat producers. Then the HSUS should disavow meatless Monday. If the HSUS does not, then it truly is, just a vegan cult, that wants to shut down animal production in the US.