"In this week’s The Field Report, we look at how Big Meat seeks to influence climate understanding, climate-friendly farming practices in question, and more."
"New research sheds light on the scope of the livestock industry’s influence over prominent agricultural research centers at two public universities. In a paper recently published in the journal Climatic Change, researchers detail how the meat industry funds credentialed academics to “obstruct unfavorable policies,” especially those targeting the industry’s largely unregulated methane emissions.
One example of the tactic occurred in early 2019, after Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) co-introduced the Green New Deal, a climate stimulus plan that laid the groundwork for the Inflation Reduction Act. Her team sent reporters a fact sheet, accidentally released prematurely, that made a passing mention of “farting cows.”
It’s a reference to cow’s greenhouse gas emissions, largely produced through belching, though passing gas contributes, too. This quickly stirred a Twitter maelstrom, the dust from which has yet to settle. Republicans depicted this as a siege on meat, claiming that Ocasio-Cortez is on a mission to take away their burgers."
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