Remember, the original release of the Green New Deal included
We set a goal to get to net-zero, rather than zero emissions, in 10 years because we aren’t sure that we’ll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast.
And then AOC and staff walked this back after the release, claiming it wasn’t the real document meant to be released (it was, and that link has links to the initial document), and the liberal media provided cover.
But, was it real? Consider this piece by the very left leaning UK Guardian, which is not shy about showing its biases, especially on ‘climate change’
What the Green New Deal will mean for your hamburger
Amid the various critiques of the proposed Green New Deal, few capture the alarmism of the American right quite like Sebastian Gorka’s now viral claim that the deal’s proponents “want to take away your hamburgers … this is what Stalin dreamt about but never achievedâ€.
While it is debatable whether Stalin would have rejoiced in a vegan United States, it is true that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal for a low-carbon economy would require a major reduction in livestock production. But there doesn’t need not be an either/or choice between the Green New Deal and meat consumption: the solution to the Green New Deal’s hamburger problem lies in Silicon Valley’s “clean meat†startups.
Cellular agriculture technology can already produce meat that is virtually identical in genetics and flavor to industrially produced meat, and it can do so without harming any animals. Last week, the UK thinktank Chatham House released a report urging EU policymakers to promote rapid regulation of and investment in this new technology. The United States needs to do the same. Government investment in scaling up alternative proteins should form a backbone of the Green New Deal’s commitment to job creation, industrial innovation and food security.
Every year over 9 billion land animals are slaughtered in the United States. Beyond being a nightmare for animals, industrial agriculture contributes 14% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Cows make up 41% of that, and the United States is home to just under 100 million of them. Reducing our carbon footprint must entail abandoning industrial agriculture, but changing people’s minds about eating meat is difficult, and getting them to actually eat less meat in even harder.
What is “cellular agriculture technology”?
A far more promising avenue for ensuring an abundance of hamburgers is the emergent cellular agriculture industry. The plant-based meat and milk alternatives sector has seen tremendous growth in recent years, and the market for meat-alternatives such as the Impossible Burger is on track to grow to $5bn a year by 2020. But these products are mere alternatives. Cellular agriculture, meanwhile, uses animal stem cells to grow meat in a lab setting that is genetically analogous to meat from slaughtered animals. The Bay Area startup Memphis Meats has already produced meatballs indistinguishable from the real thing. Compared with conventional meat, clean meat generates 96% less GHG emissions, and uses 99% less land and up to 96% less water.
Ewwwww!
But, what do they do with all the cows? They don’t say.