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An anonymous person has claimed that the meat industry paid them and others to discredit veganism online.
The person revealed this information within an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) post – effectively a virtual, real-time Q-and-A – on Reddit at the end of November.
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The anonymous person said that an unspecified US-based meat industry trade group paid them USD $17 per hour for a year to “go on sites” and “discredit veganism.”
They claimed that the meat industry group employed them and others to do this work for a year. They said that those hired for the work would make multiple accounts and “pretend to be vegans who had bad health outcomes,” or pretend to be vegans to “push the vegan subs to be more extreme and therefore easier to discredit.”
One of the most notable claims from the Q-and-A is that approximately “half the accounts on certain Reddit subs about this topic are not genuine.” The person said that the areas on which they focused included aiming to discredit veganism on nutritional grounds and arguing that some meat production is sustainable.
“We definitely cherry-picked data and made claims we knew were false,” wrote the person. “The crop deaths issue was a big one. We would embellish the heck out of that because there were no studies that could say one way or another how many mice are in a soy field, and most don’t think ‘oh wait, more crops are grown so we can feed animals.’”
‘We’d make up some doozies’
The Reddit user claimed that those employed to discredit veganism online employed animal rights and environmental arguments, but mostly focused on health. “We’d make some up some doozies,” the person wrote. One particular example, they said, was when someone they worked with claimed that veganism caused him to have OCD, and “a bunch of people” on an unnamed Reddit sub believed it.
They also said that they would attack fake meat over so-called chemical ingredients, tapping into the growing phenomenon of what some scientists call chemophobia. “But here is the catch,” wrote the person. “Water is a chemical. We’d find some ingredient that came from mushrooms, but had a long name, and we’d scare people to death with it.”
When asked whether the industry is also paying influencers to push all-meat diets – for example, the widely debunked carnivore diet – and animal foods like bone broth that are popular online, the anonymous person said, “big time yes.”
They added that they thought vegans were “stupid” at the point they took the job, but that they “respect them now,” even though they continue to eat meat. When asked about their former colleagues, the person described the group as “usually down on our luck people,” and said that while it was “fun to troll at first,” the job “gets old fast.” When asked if they felt guilty, the poster said “I do,” and explained that this feeling was what prompted them to do an anonymous AMA, despite signing an NDA.
Read more: Ultra-processed Plant-Based Foods May Be Better For Your Heart Than Unprocessed Meat And Dairy
‘Don’t believe that everyone is who they say they are online’
When asked how they felt about vegan diets now, the Reddit user said, “I think it’s probably pretty healthy if you take B12 supplements and eat fruits and vegetables and good protein sources,” and added, “But I’m no expert. I just pretended to be one!”
Within the thread of questions and answers, they cited a 2023 report by the Guardian on “big beef’s climate messaging machine” as a prime example of the sector’s tactics in practice. Per the article, the industry aims to “confuse, defend, and downplay” the huge environmental footprint of animal products.
The Reddit user also referenced a recent feature update on X that revealed some of the largest MAGA (Make America Great Again) accounts are based outside of the US, leading to some reporters speculating that many are in it “for the money.”
“It was pretty gross. I knew it. I did it anyway. The pay wasn’t worth it,” wrote the Reddit user. “I signed an NDA as well, so I will only be able to answer questions in general terms. But I do warn you, don’t believe that everyone is who they say they are online.”
Ladbible‘s coverage of this story is no longer available, and several social media posts – including this one from Carnism Debunked – are also unavailable. The whistleblower has since deleted their Reddit account, but the site archives posts even after people remove their profiles. You can see the full thread here.
‘A hostage negotiation’
A report by Rooted Research Collective and The Freedom Food Alliance from earlier this year found that a significant proportion of online misinformation comes from 53 social media “super-spreaders.” Ninety-six percent of these super-spreaders make money from promoting health misinformation in one way or another.
Also this year, research by DeSmog that the PR firm Red Flag was employed by the meat industry to brief journalists, think tanks, and influencers to frame the landmark 2019 EAT-Lancet report as “radical,” “out of touch,” and “hypocritical.”
Just a few weeks ago, more than 300 industrial agriculture lobbyists participated in this year’s COP climate talks. That’s more people than the entire Canadian delegation. Raj Patel, a research professor from the University of Texas School, described COP30 as “a hostage negotiation,” not a climate conference.
Agriculture is responsible for up to a third of all human-caused emissions. Animal farming, in particular, is responsible for nearly 60 percent of food emissions and is currently the leading cause of climate change and the leading cause of food waste.
Read more: Updated EAT-Lancet Planetary Health Diet Could Prevent 40,000 Deaths Per Day
