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Meat reducer Arnold Schwarzenegger has been accused of ‘drinking the vegan Kool-Aid’ in an opinion piece published by Beef Magazine.
The phrase – which suggests someone is going along with a bad idea due to peer pressure – has been applied to Schwarzenegger because he has spoken out about the link between animal agriculture and greenhouse gas emissions.
‘Hysteria’
The article, titled Arnold Schwarzenegger drinks the vegan Kool-Aid, cites the former bodybuilder’s appearance at the United Nations Paris Climate Change Conference, in which he was asked by the BBC whether he would recommend reducing meat consumption to save the environment from greenhouse gases.
Schwarzenegger replied that 28 percent of greenhouse gasses are generated by the production of meat. He added that asking people to go vegan is ‘too drastic’ and advocates for one or two vegetarian or vegan days a week.
The article therefore claims that Schwarzenegger ‘has succumbed to the common rhetoric that beef is a huge contributor to greenhouse gases’.
Arnie tells fans to ‘cut down on meat’
Questions
The writer adds: “In response to this hysteria, I have many questions for the Terminator…
“Why is it so easy to blame cattle? Have you ever seen smog over a cattle ranch? Per calorie of nutrition, how sustainable are legumes, peanut butter, tofu, lentils and broccoli?
“What about urban pollution? Electricity for our houses, gas for our cars, consumer goods delivered to our door from Amazon – do these not have an environmental impact?”
‘Work to do’
Calling ideas around the damaging impact of animal agriculture on the environment ‘biased, inaccurate and sensational’, the article concludes that ‘common sense seems to be in short supply these days’.
What the writer describes as information ‘spewed by elitists’ seems to be having an impact on the meat industry.
The piece concludes: “The industry has a lot of work to do; we better get to it.”
