By now you have heard that on Monday of this week, the cancer agency of the World Health Organization, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), released a report that definitively stated that processed meat causes cancer, and that red meat, including beef, pork and lamb, probably causes cancer, too.
Now California is considering adding meat to the cancer-alert warning list. According to the Huffington Post, California's Proposition 65, an initiative approved in 1986, requires that the state keep a list of all chemicals and substances known to increase cancer risks. Producers of such products are required to provide "clear and reasonable" warnings for consumers. They report that in most cases, once an item is added, it is up to the maker to prove to the state that its product is not dangerous enough to warrant a warning label.
This is HUGE news, and a very bad time to be in the meat business.
Earlier his month, a study was put forward by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) dubbing beef as a "climate harmful meat." The study states that cutting the production of energy-intensive meat production will help reduce world's carbon footprint and the result would be much more defined than decreasing or altogether eliminating the use of automobiles and fuels.
Nationally, we were very close to making some serious strides when the top U.S. nutrition advisory council, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC), concluded that a diet rich in plant-based foods is better for your health — and is also more environmentally sustainable.
These scientific recommendations were sadly shot down, thanks to the meat industry's friends on the Hill, but how long can they keep defending their unsustainable, unhealthy and inhumane products?
There is officially an international consensus that meat does not do the planet or your body any good, so what are we waiting for?
Consider making a change and take our 30-day vegan challenge.