Oregon jumps on anti-meat bandwagon

by Dr. Joseph Mercola

New Oregon Law Seeks to Ban Meat

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

• Bill Gates, who co-funded the startup of the imitation meat company Impossible Foods, now insists synthetic beef is a necessary strategy to address climate change
• Gates wants Americans and other Western nations to switch to a diet of 100% synthetic beef. Coincidentally, Oregon is now proposing a ballot initiative for the 2022 general election that would effectively ban most meat sales and consumption in the state
• Initiative Petition 13 would turn Oregon into a “sanctuary state for animals” by removing exemptions for good animal husbandry practices, criminalizing the raising and slaughtering of food animals and reclassifying traditional animal husbandry practices such as artificial insemination as “sexual assault”
• This falls in line with the net zero emission goals announced by the Biden administration, which aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, compared to 2005 levels, and reach zero emissions by 2050 at the latest
• Forcing people to cut or eliminate beef consumption is part of the climate agenda. Gates spells this out in his book, and the EAT Forum, which collaborates with nearly 40 governments around the world to transform the food system, works closely with imitation meat companies, including Impossible Foods

As you may have heard, Bill Gates has been buying up farmland across 18 U.S. states through various subsidiary companies.¹ In all, he now owns about 242,000 acres of farmland.² He’s also a longtime promoter of GMOs and recently started calling for a complete transition from meat to lab-grown meat and other fake and unnatural food sources, such as a protein-rich microbe found in a Yellowstone geyser.³

Seeing how Gates always promotes solutions and industries that he has financial investments in, it’s not surprising that Gates insists synthetic beef is a necessary strategy to address climate change,⁴ having co-funded the startup of the imitation meat company Impossible Foods. Other investors included Google and Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos.⁵

The call to replace beef with fake meat is made in Gates’ book “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need,” which was released in February 2021.⁶

The idea is that by eliminating livestock, we’d reduce methane emissions, a greenhouse gas. However, the notion that cattle are a significant source of methane only applies to animals raised on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), where they are fed an inappropriate diet of GMO grains — not free-grazing animals raised on a species-appropriate diet of grasses.

So, in reality, a far more sustainable and healthy answer would be to transition away from CAFOs and return to integrated herd management systems, which are an important part of regenerative farming, as grazing livestock optimizes soil quality and improves the quality and quantity of crops.

Oregon Bill Aims to Ban Meat

Gates isn’t suggesting the U.S. cut down on meat consumption by a little bit. He wants Americans and other Western nations to switch to a diet of 100% synthetic beef.⁷ Mid-February, 2021, he told Technology Review:⁸

“I do think all rich countries should move to 100% synthetic beef. You can get used to the taste difference, and the claim is they’re going to make it taste even better over time. Eventually, that green premium is modest enough that you can sort of change the [behavior of] people or use regulation to totally shift the demand.”

Gates is no stranger to pushing for regulations that shift consumer demand, so, it’s a curious coincidence that one U.S. state — Oregon — is now proposing a ballot initiative for the 2022 general election that would effectively ban meat sale and consumption in the state altogether.⁹

On the scale of crazy, it’s certifiable and sounds like something straight out of the satire site “The Onion.” But, if like Gates, you are trying to force a transition into synthetic beef and other patented food sources, it’s a logical, if not necessary, step.

As explained in the Ice Age Farmer video above, Initiative Petition 13¹⁰ (IP13) would turn Oregon into a “sanctuary state for animals” by removing exemptions for good animal husbandry practices, criminalizing the raising and slaughtering of food animals in the state, and reclassifying traditional animal husbandry practices such as artificial insemination and castration as “sexual assault.”

The only type of natural meat that would be allowed to be processed and eaten would be an animal that has lived out at least one-quarter of its natural lifespan or died of natural causes, which typically means the meat is inedible due to age or disease. Killing of an animal would only be legal in cases of “human self-defense.” As reported by Farm Progress:¹¹

“Livestock groups say the initiative has dangerous implications for their industry. They note that language in the proposal specifically targets livestock transportation, poultry production and commonly accepted slaughter methods as well as fishing, hunting, trapping, wildlife management and other animal-related activities …

Oregon Cattlemen’s Association executive director Tammy Dennee told Farm Progress … ‘If you really boil it down, we’re talking about local food production … There’s a high degree of consumer awareness about purchasing local and understanding the local food supply, and you do not get better local food production than with a local beef producer.’”

See the full report here