Washington–This morning the $4.5 billon Pew Charitable Trusts rolled out a stealth campaign against meat production and consumption. The two-year National Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production (NCIFAP), stacked with opponents of animal agriculture and advocates of strict vegetarianism, threatens to attack farmers and demonize the meat on America’s dinner tables.
The academic sponsor of this Pew project is Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, which has already demonstrated an institutional bias against meat in general. The Bloomberg School also promotes a “Meatless Mondays” campaign in cooperation with New York philanthropist Helaine Lerner—whose considerable fortune also subsidizes the anti-meat “Meatrix” internet videos.
David Martosko, Director of Research at the nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom, said: “This Pew-funded panel is a Trojan horse for organized activists who want to radically change the way meat is produced or eliminate it entirely. If you wanted to assemble a kangaroo court to rubber-stamp the opinion that modern meat production is the root of all evil, you could hardly do better than this group. The only thing missing is PETA.”
NCIFAP panelists include vegetarian actress and animal-rights advocate Daryl Hannah; environmentalist and vegetarian cookbook author Deirdre Imus; “natural” beef marketer Bill Niman; “cage-free” egg marketer Fedele Bauccio; “social justice” advocate Brother David Andrews; animal-rights author Bernard Rollin; organic-meat consultant Fred Kirschenmann; and nutrition scold Marion Nestle, who famously declared in 2002 that “food is too cheap in this country.” The panel includes just two veterinarians and two working ranchers (one of whom is Ms. Imus).
Martosko added: “It’s hard to believe Pew and the Bloomberg School couldn’t find more than a few veterinarians and ranchers to serve on a 19-person panel. These are the people who actually know something practical about animal welfare. As it is, the current panel of activists can’t possibly be taken seriously.”
