Move over, vegetarian; the “climatarian” is now taking the smug seat at the dinner table.
This new term is a convergence of two political crusades: climate change and the food movement.
It landed on the New York Times list of the top new food words for 2015. Here’s how the Grey Lady defined the term:
climatarian (n.) A diet whose primary goal is to reverse climate change. This includes eating locally produced food (to reduce energy spent in transportation), choosing pork and poultry instead of beef and lamb (to limit gas emissions), and using every part of ingredients (apple cores, cheese rinds, etc.) to limit food waste.
As the public tunes out stale climate-change rhetoric, climatarians hope to turn attention away from your SUV and onto your dinner plate.
They have plenty of help to make their case. A dire report released last November by Chatham House at the Royal Institute of International Affairs claims that the livestock sector is responsible for emitting about 15 percent of greenhouse gases, which “is equivalent to tailpipe emissions from all the world’s vehicles.”
The United Nations pegs the figure even higher, at about 25 percent.
They want us to think that if we cut out meat, we’d dramatically reduce emissions.
A specious report from the cancer agency of the World Health Organization last year warned that processed and red meat are carcinogenic.
The group’s goal is to foment public fear about America’s favorite protein, despite a dearth of scientific evidence to back it up.
The group’s goal is to foment public fear about America’s favorite protein, despite a dearth of scientific evidence to back it up.
And with worldwide beef demand expected to rise more than 75 percent by 2050, governments and environmental groups are working hard to persuade people that meat is not only bad for your health, it’s also bad for the planet.
In other words, meat is the new coal..."
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