Is Joe Biden Trying to Limit Americans to Four Pounds of Red Meat Per Year?

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Over the weekend, Republican politicians and personalities claimed that President Joe Biden’s climate plan would require Americans to cut their red meat consumption by 90 percent, allowing only four pounds of red meat per year. 

https://twitter.com/RealMattCouch/status/1386056856506802177
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  1. JohnO

    Biden has given no details how the US would reduce GHG emissions 50% (below a previous baseline, somewhat but not drastically less than a 50% reduction from now's level) in only 9 years. Which to me renders this albeit accurate 'fact check' a bit pedantic. The original article was exploring ways in which this goal could be achieved. And it would in fact have to include onerous and expensive changes, or it's the burden of those in favor to show otherwise, given the magnitude and timescale. I don't see the headline overall as being 'GOP lies about Biden climate plan'.

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    Will Wright

    The Dems know they can only pass budget / spending bills through reconcilation. And without big, popular payouts like $1400 per adult or "childcare" Infrastructure, they're left with wishlist policy proposals to placate the progressive base and fuel GOP attack adds.

    The only red meat news here is an uptick in Nothing Burgers.

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    mgrad92

    A great post, but it needs to be corrected to cite the University of Michigan Center for Sustainable Systems (https://css.umich.edu), not "Michigan University." In the fact-checking business, when credibility is everything, details like that matter.

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      Narwhal

      If someone goes to the Daily Mail for anything other than celeb gossip and bikini pics then they are misusing the internet as a resource for information.

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    rlritt

    I heard that Biden is going to make it illegal for people to wear clown noses when in public because it hides their faces from the satellite cameras spying on US citizens. Pass it around. You can buy clown noses from me for $4 by emailing Imanidiot@comcast

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    Marty

    Trump spent four years governing (if that's the word for it) by telling Big Lies on a regular -- often daily --basis, going out with the Biggest Lie ever, namely, that he won the election. The Trump wing of the Republican Party (which could actually be a majority of the party, it's hard to tell) now continues in the Boss's tradition by attacking the Biden administration with Big Lies. (The Trump wing also still believes, Heaven help us, that Trump won the election.) And Fox News continues its role of promoting those Big Lies as the gospel truth. It's disheartening. There are ample grounds for criticizing the size and scope of Joe Biden's legislative program without resorting to this kind of nonsense, which the right wing press swallows whole and spews out to Trump Nation, who eagerly gobble it down, making them crazier then ever.

    Please pardon the florid metaphor, but it springs from despair, as I become increasingly convinced that the voice of reason (e.g., Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney) will never regain the upper hand in the GOP, which would be bad for the party and worse for the country. I say this as a lifelong registered Independent who is able to vote for reasonable Republicans here in Massachusetts (Governor Charlie Baker, former senator Scott Brown) but is scared to death of the national party's drastic turn to populism, nativism and a no-compromise mindset, which was already brewing during the Bush presidency but speeded up exponentially with the election of Barak Obama. Remember Mitch McConnell saying in early 2009 that his primary goal was to ensure that Obama was a one-term president? That's no way to run an airline.

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    1. Jon D

      So if Mitt Romney is your idea of a good Republican, is Joe Manchin your idea of a good Democrat? You think Democrats have shown a willingness to compromise? Regarding the issue at hand, there is a basis for concern amongst us beef eaters: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2019/11/18/are-my-hamburgers-hurting-planet/
      The concern stems from the Democrat propensity to get over-involved in peoples' everyday lives and choices. Remember Bloomberg and the large soda debacle? Liberals who live in big cities and eat tofu have the power.

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    Narwhal

    Politics as performance art. Yuck.

    The federal government can’t impose a nation wide mask mandate, only recommendations. But, sure Biden is going to limit all Americans to four pounds of red meat a year and enforce it.

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      Kmregan7

      Fun anecdote....I had a relative try to talk politics with me (we don't talk politics for various reasons, not least because they tend to end discussions with "leave your liberal BS out of this!" after being challenged)....anyway, they were bringing up the border situation and how Biden should do something and I flat out said "it's almost like Congress should do their jobs and solve the problem by passing some immigration legislation"....sputter..."well, Biden wouldn't sign it anyway, he WANTS the chaos." But at least it brought up the fact that Biden is not dictator of the United States and can't just unilaterally do things, even as much as the executive branch has expanded (again, thanks to Congress not doing their jobs)

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  7. Eric L

    I can't decide what is funnier.... Fox News running with the 'one burger a month' story which was patently false on its face to anyone with a brain, or the fact that Donald Trump Jr. "ate four pounds of red meat yesterday".

    Just fools all the way around.

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      JohnF

      16 1/4 pounders should be doable if you focus on it from the moment you get up to the time you go to bed. I'm guessing you won't feel very good about yourself by the time you go to bed, but if you're Donald Trump Jr., that's probably the way you feel every night.

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      rlritt

      I wonder if Trump Jr wants to buy a 1,000 clown noses?

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        Narwhal

        Probably not. But, he might help you sell them if he gets a cut.

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          rlritt

          Do you have his email?

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            Narwhal

            Nope. Try Parler. I’d also suggest raising the price for the clown noses and sourcing their production to Bolivia to entice him.

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    dmklever

    Seems to me that all the worry about cow belches overlooks the big picture. The folks who raise grass-fed beef claim that properly managed pasture in a rotational grazing system sequesters a bunch of carbon. I would be interested to see a study comparing the full cycle greenhouse gas impact of standard beef production practices (e.g. feedlots) vs. a full grass-fed method.

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      rlritt

      You are obviously too smart for this topic discussion.

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    2. Jon S

      There have been a few studies done, one below. Most studies I have seen come to the around the same conclusion that pasture raised and finished beef significantly reduces carbon footprint and properly rotated pastured beef is a fairly large net positive. Even the article below doesn't take into account the GHG for feedlot beef that is generated in the production of the feed. it also doesn't take into a account that a properly managed pasture with rotational grazing converts 4X as much CO2 to O2 as a forest. Properly managed grass is one of the densest and fasting growing plants in the world. That is a lot of CO2 to O2.

      https://kb.wisc.edu/dairynutrient/375fsc/page.php?id=48431

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        Marty

        Very interesting information, of which I was unaware. The question is, how many ranchers can be persuaded to stop shipping their cattle to feedlots and switch to a properly managed pasture in a rotational grazing system? What's in it for them? Unless the switch occurs on a very large scale, it won't help.

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          JohnF

          The second question is how many Americans would be unhappy if all burgers cost $7+?

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            Marty

            My goodness, I certainly stirred up a hornet's nest with my comments today! Time to crawl back in my hole and lick my wounds....

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        2. Jon D

          Small farmers are better equipped to do rotational grazing than big corporate operations. Yet, here we are, with Mr. Joe wanting to ditch the step up basis rules at death. This will destroy the family farm.

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          Kmregan7

          Having a sister who lives in a city with MULTIPLE feedlots - better smelling air should be way up there with "what's in it for them?" But since they're shipping their cattle to feedlots, I guess they don't have to deal with the smell.

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        rlritt

        You're too smart, too.

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        dmklever

        Thanks!

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    Bill Nelson

    Is this the cow flatulence thing?

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      JohnF

      It's more of a basic cost accounting thing. I just watched an interview with the main investigator of the study. The question they were asking was "What would the effect on GHG production be if red meat consumption was drastically reduced?" (the study didn't actually make any recommendations).
      So, if you start with your quarter-pounder and walk back through the energy required to: Cook that quarter-pounder; transport the ground beef required; prepare that ground beef; slaughter the cow; transport the cow; feed the cow; produce all of the inputs that went into growing that feed, etc etc. etc, you can make a good case.
      However, you can also draw the same kind of comparison to the consumption of avocado toasts in Fargo, ND in January.
      Overall, the point is (and this is the point the lead investigator made) we don't need to go to the extremes every time something like this comes up.

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    2. Mads Lindstrøm

      Well, it is cow burping (and not farting) that releases most of the methane. Not that changes anything. Just being in my pedantic corner.

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        rlritt

        Maybe the farmers could add GasX to their feed.

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        1. Mads Lindstrøm

          You may be joking, but you are not too far of http://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/news/2020/09/29/scientists-work-to-cut-greenhouse-gases-one-cow-burp-at-a-time/ :

          "Now new research by DiLorenzo and others shows that a small change to cattle’s diets reduced the animals’ methane emissions by 11%."

          I would much more like they collected the methane, so I can could get a cow burp-mobile.

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            rlritt

            Sounds like a plan. Keep me posted.

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      Isaac P

      Well, bovine methane is a real thing. And yes, it is.

      But at no time has anyone in Biden’s team so much as linked to the University of Michigan report. (The Daily Mail, not knowing any better, kept referring to it as Michigan University.)

      I’m a former journalist, and the leaps and skips required to prop up this nonsense are ridiculous.

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        Jason Gibson

        I refer to it as "that school that must not be named"


        Go Green

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          rlritt

          Go White!

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          Jscottstephenson

          Go Blue!

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          1. Jon D

            Go Buckeyes!

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    Victor Clairmont

    If he was I could stand to lose a few pounds.

    Mmmm, beef.

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About Alec Dent

Alec Dent is the culture editor and a staff writer for The Dispatch. He is a graduate of the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at UNC Chapel Hill, and previously oversaw The Dispatch's fact checking team.
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