Wall Street Journal: The Climate Agenda Behind the Bacon Scare
Julie Kelly, cooking instructor and food writer, and Jeff Stier, leader of the risk analysis division at the National Center for Public Policy Research

“…With United Nations climate talks beginning in a few weeks in Paris, the cancer warning [linked to processed and red meats] seems particularly well timed. Environmental activists have long sought to tie food to the fight against global warming. Now the doomsayers who want to take on modern agriculture, a considerable source of greenhouse-gas emissions, can employ an additional scare tactic: Meat production sickens the planet; meat consumption sickens people. … In advance of the Paris climate talks, the World Health Organization released a lengthy report about climate pollutants and global health risks. The section on agriculture discusses the need to direct consumers away from foods whose production emits high levels of greenhouse gases [GHG]: ‘A key action with large potential climate and health benefits is to facilitate a shift away from high-GHG foods — many of which are of animal origin — and towards healthy, low-GHG (often plant-based) alternatives.’ … Now climate busybodies can shout that meat causes cancer and is as bad for the person eating it as it is for the planet. In other words, meat is a double threat that governments should contain. Hang on to your T-bones and sausages, folks” (11/9).