Most folks are pretty sanguine (hah) about what they eat. Sensible people, anyway. We eat what we like, mind our own business, and let other people do the same. In our regular Saturday lunches up the valley at the lodge, we don't get upset if the people at the next table have salads, and expect they won't get upset if I order a cheeseburger.
That's how reasonable people live. The problem is, not all people are reasonable. We've all seen the unhinged shouting of PETA and the various "ethical vegan" activist nutcases, who like to shout at us for ingesting animal parts. It's easy to ignore them most of the time. But now a well-funded group of nuts are promoting something called the "Planetary Health Diet," which ignores human biology, is not healthy, and won't save the planet.
The Daily Sceptic's Environment Editor, Chris Morrison, has details.
Ignorance of basic human biology and the woke propagandising of food ‘science’ to control global human behaviour lies behind the recently-published second version of the EAT-Lancet Planetary Health Diet (PHD). Produced by dozens of credentialled cretins around the world, it restricts meat and dairy consumption to levels not seen since the Second World War. Pasty-faced and possibly protein-starved researchers suggest around 15 grams of red meat a day and promote a mainly plant-based diet. A suggestion to cut agricultural emissions by 50% within 25 years means using much less hydrocarbon-produced fertiliser, and that would lead to mass global starvation. But then this potty planetary piss-take could only have been suggested by people who believe that, whatever societal devastation they cause, the soy latte will magically appear as they make their way to Whole Foods to pick up their organic humous.
It's worse than it seems; "hydrocarbon-based" fertilizer, of course, is refined from petroleum, making it a double-whammy on the climate scold's Radar of Bad Things.
This isn't a new thing, of course. "Vegan" activists, radical environmental types (who always seem to live in big cities) and climate scolds have been pushing this notion for years. But what makes this latest effort interesting is the well-heeled, jet-setting supporters pushing it.
Enter a primary funder of this lunacy, billionaire Gunhild Stordalen, who seems to be an older, richer, even more annoying version of Greta "Doom Pixie" Thunberg.
Billionaire Gunhild Stordalen, 40, promotes her company's environmental campaign while using the plane that makes her personal carbon footprint around 37 times worse than someone who flies by commercial airline.
The model-turned-doctor frequently posts snaps of her and her husband posing against picturesque backdrops in exotic destinations, something she has been heavily criticised for.
Christopher Snowdon, Head of Lifestyle Economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs told The Mirror: "The hypocrisy of this is breathtaking.
"This is a campaign telling ordinary people they should be eating less than half a rasher of bacon per day for the sake of the environment, while the patron is flying people around the world in private jets creating one enormous carbon footprint.
This "Planetary Health Diet," in fact, has quite a list of well-heeled donors. But Ms. Stordalen, who jet-sets around the world in her private aircraft to virtue signal at the top of her lungs, well, she has to be the most egregious case.
Read More: Inside the Smug, Secret Minds of Vegan Activists
Here Are Some Ideas on Making Your Diet Climate-Friendly. Problem: They're Hot Garbage.
Here's the thing: Nothing about this will have any measurable effect on the planet's temperature. Human activity, yes, has some effect on climate, but the best indications are that it isn't really significant; our best efforts are, on the planetary scale, just too puny.
The real flaw in this argument lies in our own biology - the biology of Homo sapiens. Enter RedState's in-house biologist: Me.
Over-specialization is rarely a good survival strategy, which is why you see more raccoons, which can and do eat almost anything, than pandas, which feed mainly on bamboo. Humans are more like raccoons in this respect. Our teeth are small and (as mammals go) non-differentiated. Our digestive systems lack the keratin lining that some obligate herbivores have, and likewise lack a rumen, or any other such big, fermenting digestive tract that can break down rough plant matter, like grass. But we also lack the short gut and the carnassial teeth of obligate carnivores, like cats.
In other words, we're the perfect in-betweeners. The human digestive system is a biological garbage disposal. We can take anything except the roughest plant matter and turn it into food. There is also another factor: Our brains. Our huge, human brains are metabolic gas-guzzlers, requiring a significant amount of intake of high-value food: Protein. As in, meat and dairy. We're genetically programmed to seek out animal proteins, as they are high-octane fuels for our big brains.
That's what the "vegan" nutcases don't seem to understand - or just don't care about. So, once again, wealthy, jet-setting, finger-wagging scolds are lecturing us about our diets, instead of doing the reasonable thing and minding their own freakin' business.
Fortunately, we can do the sane thing in reply, at least here in the USA: Ignore them, and order another cheeseburger. They're literally brain food!
