Bacon Should Carry Cigarette-Style Warnings, Says Dale Vince

Dale Vince is calling on the government to do more to tackle meat consumption

19th November 2024

3 Minutes Read

Bacon should carry cigarette-style health warnings in the UK over its links to cancer and environmental destruction, Dale Vince has said.

The Ecotricity founder, who is a well-known vegan and climate activist, said that changing what we eat is “the biggest single thing we can do to reduce carbon emissions and to improve human health.”

In a joint interview with The Sunday Times and BBC Radio 4’s A Week In Westminster, Vince called on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to do more to reduce the UK’s meat consumption. “The role for government is to give us better advice, to put health warnings on meat and dairy products, to change the menu in the NHS and our public institutions,” he said.

Processed red meat, including bacon, is classified as a class one carcinogen by the World Health Organization, meaning it’s known to cause cancer, in this case colon cancer. Animal agriculture is also a leading cause of environmental destruction, driving deforestation, biodiversity loss, and species extinction. Despite this, Starmer recently said at the COP29 conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, that he “won’t tell people how to live their lives” to curb the climate crisis.

The campaign to make hospitals plant-based

A woman eating hospital food in a hospital bed — Adobe Stock Despite their health impacts, animal products are served to patients in UK hospitals

Vince is backing a new campaign by Plants First Healthcare to make UK hospitals plant-based by default. Despite the fact that red meat and dairy are linked to a number of health problems, these foods continue to be served to sick patients across the country. Numerous studies have found that plant-based diets rich in whole foods are associated with lower disease risk.

“The medical science is very clear that eating more plants and less animals is better for our health,” Vince said. “Also we know, for example, bacon is a carcinogen and it is classed by the WHO as a class one carcinogen alongside tobacco. Now look what we do with tobacco. We hide it behind roller shutter doors, we stick it in unbranded packages with pictures of diseased organs on the front. That’s how we deal with tobacco.”