Mark Bittman, The New York Times’ vegetarian-in-chief and a reputed ex-farm boy, kicked over another of his sun-baked cow patties when he attacked the USDA for reversing its Meatless Monday half-stance.
For those few who weren’t paying attention, USDA published a newsletter for its employees suggesting they reduce their environmental impact by participating in ‘Meatless Mondays,’ a vegetarian-driven program that’s been gaining some traction among a few urban foodies.
Out here in what those coastal-types call flyover or cow country, the idea didn’t go over so well.
The newsletter noted that the “production of meat (especially beef) plays a role in climate change, wastes water, and requires disproportionate amounts of fertilizers, pesticides and fossil fuels.”
There also was a suggestion that eating too much beef might make you sick.
Now isn’t that enough for any self respecting cattleman to man the ramparts?
All of those points are tenuous at best - except for the eating too much part.
Eating too much of anything might make you sick.
Eating too much of everything is probably the major cause of our ‘growing’ national weight problem.
Of course, when folks at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association caught wind of the story they reacted much like city folk do when they move out into the countryside and buy a house next to a feedyard.
They wrinkled up their noses and wondered where the hell that stench was coming from.
J.D. Alexander, NCBA’s Daniel Boone-style president, picked up his trusty rifle and did a ready-aim-fire thing when he sent this little bullet across the federal bow:
“This is truly an awakening statement by USDA, which strongly indicates that USDA does not understand the efforts being made in rural America to produce food and fiber for a growing global population in a very sustainable way.
USDA was created to provide a platform to promote and sustain rural America in order to feed the world.
This move by USDA should be condemned by anyone who believes agriculture is fundamental to sustaining life on this planet.”
The USDA quickly backed down. Recanted. Removed the offending item from their files.
An embittered Bittman doubled down, writing about “an amusing footnote in the annals of food progress, and further evidence of government cowardice.”
Hopping up and down a bit more – I won’t say he was hopping mad because I didn’t actually see him dance around his desk – he wrote, “The Department of Agriculture, however, has multiple missions.
One is ‘to keep America’s farmers and ranchers in business.’ Sadly, although the statement doesn’t say which farmers and ranchers, in practice this has meant those who produce commodity crops: wheat, rice, cotton, corn and soybeans, and the animals and junk food whose production relies on the last two.
The second is ‘to end hunger and improve health in the United States.’
Last week, the U.S.D.A. betrayed its mission to improve health, acting in a cowardly fashion.
For that it should be taken to task.”
May I take Bittman to task, instead?
He demonstrated his vegetarian bias when he wrote the USDA “should be saying loud and clear to every citizen of the United States.
You want to improve health, you discourage the overconsumption of meat."
No you don’t. You discourage overconsumption period. The USDA cannot single out one agricultural product for that kind of condemnation.
Bittman tossed another iron in the fire when he continued his commentary by writing, “Forget that meat is not fiber, that its industrial-style production is not sustainable by any normal definition, and that — guess what? — ‘agriculture’ produces the food ‘Meatless Monday’ advocates eat, too.”
Methinks Bittman has been off the farm a bit too long.
Maybe he misspent his youth on one of those picket-fenced small family farms with a few chickens pecking around in the front yard and a pig or two back in that stylish, red-painted barn.
I wonder if they painted “See Rock City” on the sides of barns that far West?
All of those beasties, as well as little Timmy, were probably kept in check by an unbelievably intelligent Collie named Lassie.
Bittman certainly doesn’t understand modern farming or what’s sustainable.
He did give a grudging tip of the hat to Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley who tweeted, “I will eat more meat on Monday to compensate for stupid USDA recommendation abt a meatless Monday.”
No, wait, that was a cheap shot from the big city. My mistake.
Bittman really steered his personal ship, the S. S. Asparagus, onto the reef when he claimed that “The ship had torpedoed itself.
The U.S.D.A. had made a forward-thinking and factually sound recommendation about meat consumption.
(Forward-thinking for them; the rest of us are already eating less meat, and half of us already know about Meatless Mondays.)”
“The rest of us?” Who is “us?” Is he claiming the vast majority of the American public follows his East-of-the-Hudson, West-of-U.C. Berkeley fanatical foodie regimen? I don’t think so.
His veggie cabal measures a bare 2% of the U.S. population, part-time veggie folk who sneak a bite of meat now and then are a bit more.
Bittman was ruing the fact that a trade association could go to the USDA and say, “Excuse me, did you really mean to say that about the things that we produce?” and get a satisfactory response.
He called it caving in, knuckling under, bowing to the meat master.
Of course, he wanted to go to the same government agency and ask them to cave in, knuckle under, bow to the vegetarian master.
Bottom line, here, is that USDA accidently went where they weren’t supposed to go and, when it was pointed out to them, wisely backed up.
I’ll make my dinner tonight a medium-rare steak with a baked potato on the side.
If Bittman wants to just eat small potatoes, that’s fine with me – just stay away from my plate, I like to top my potato with bacon bits and real butter.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Chuck Jolley, a veteran food-industry journalist and commentator.
Source: drovers.com
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