By Robert Bradley Jr.
“Living small is not going to sell with the public and the voters. And the call for a meatless cuisine is not even culturally correct.”
EuroNews’s Liam Gilliver (AP) summarized the new political reality in “Trump Tracker: How the US is Rolling Back Climate Progress in 2026“). In addition to
- withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement,
- withdrawing from the UN climate programs;
- liberating Venezuelan oil and gas; and
- cancelling or reversing renewable energy subsidies,
Gilliver also singled out New Dietary Guidelines, with the comment: “The US Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture have come under fire after releasing their 2026 dietary guidelines, which encourage American households to prioritise diets built on “whole, nutrient-dense food.”
The “Eat Real Food” pyramid recommends “significantly limiting highly processed items.” And real beef steak and dairy are at the top of the illustration.
Gilliver can only complain:
The new food pyramid puts an image of a red steak and ground beef at the top under the “protein” section, despite beef being responsible for 20 times more greenhouse gas emissions per gram of protein than plant-based alternatives such as beans and lentils.
Bad optics? “Neither of these foods appears on the food pyramid,” Gilliver allows, “but they are mentioned in the full dietary guidelines.” His article continues:
“While there are many ways to meet our protein needs, not all protein sources have the same impact on people or the planet,” says Raychel Santo, a food and climate researcher at the World Resources Institute (WRI). “Beef and lamb, in particular, have some of the highest environmental costs of any protein-rich food — with significantly higher greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and water pollution per ounce of protein than most alternatives.”
Once again, the self-interest of consumers in a free economy is at odds with the agenda of the Climate Industrial Complex. And with the decline in interest and sales of fake meat (Beyond Meat is a penny stock, down 99 percent) the political problem of the eco-busybodies is profound. [1]
Living small is not going to sell with the public and the voters. And the call for a meatless cuisine is not even culturally correct. Consider what Chris Tomlinson, the climate-obsessed business editorialist at the Houston Chronicle, stated five years ago in “Fighting Climate Change Requires Changing Texas Beef and Oil Culture”:
No wonder so many Texans refuse to acknowledge climate change; the planet’s fate relies on transforming not only our economy but our culture…. It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that climate change might come to a screeching halt if all humans switched to electric transportation and a vegetarian diet by 2030.
How embarrassing! BBQ, beef fajitas, and char-grilled steak are clear victors over fake meat. Taste, texture, and smell matter in the real world, rain or shine.
[1] AI summarizes the problems of Beyond Meat:
Beyond Meat stock ($BYND) has crashed from over $200 in 2019 to penny-stock levels due to dwindling demand, high production costs, intense competition, and mounting financial losses. Consumers have shied away from the high-priced, highly processed products, leading to years of declining revenue and investor concern over the company’s long-term viability
