We’re Confiscating That Burger! Obama Administration Wants to Control Americans Eating Meat?
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on October 13, 2009
Barack and his cheeseburger... paradise (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
More nanny-state mandates… no, burgers aren’t being banned or meat consumption being controlled by the government. Not yet, anyway.
However, additional “sin taxes” were considered in New York on soda and sugary drinks, public schools are banning bake sales and are experimenting in Delaware day care facilities to remove from their menus hot dogs and all sweets and replace with only healthful choices. While not imminent, meat control for the American public has been lightly discussed on Bill Maher’s show by EPA administrator Lisa Jackson… and that’s how “gradualism” begins, kids.
As much as I support healthful eating, there is no consensus in research to support that a sugar-free or hot-dog-free diet necessarily promotes better health. All things in moderation, right? And by denying anyone a hot dog at the ball park or a cookie after dinner doesn’t promote better health… in my house, it would promote rebellion. While this is now limited to our schools and day care centers, mark my words… it won’t be long before parents are told what they can or cannot feed their children at home. No, no one should be obese, least of all pre-schoolers. But does the government have a right to impose itself on parents’ decisions?
Should the government get more and more involved with what used to be parents’ choices? Heck, more involved in what used to be OUR choices for what we eat? This nanny-state mentality, “only we know what is good for you” heavy handedness is escalating.
It may not be common knowledge, but Barack and Michelle Obama both love to eat burgers. I’ve written about how the First Lady sneaks out of the White House to get her favorite burger when no one is paying attention. Listening to the fringe media, though, you wouldn’t know it. In fact, in August, a photo op ban was enacted to prevent shooting photos of Michelle and the girls out eating hamburgers in public. Wouldn’t be consistent with her “eat more veggies” agenda.
FLOTUS Michelle Obama's favorite... a Five Guys cheeseburger
Check out the latest from CNN (which, in maligning hamburgers, conveniently left out that E. coli-tainted spinach greens were recalled from supermarkets across the nation last year, and that iceberg lettuce, romaine, dairy products, and other raw fruits and vegetables also have tested positive for E. coli):
From CNN Health:
Should Americans banish the burger?
October 13, 2009Hamburgers are an American passion. And millions of Americans consume burgers, and other forms of meat, every day without consequences.
But ground beef contaminated with E. coli bacteria has sickened, paralyzed and even killed some people who ate it.
On Monday night’s “Larry King Live,” a wide range of guests joined an in-depth and spirited debate to answer this question: Should meat, and most specifically hamburgers, be a part of the American diet?
[...]
Patrick Boyle, president and CEO of the American Meat Institute, told King that the stories of people sickened or killed by E. coli infection are tragic, but there is a wider context.
“Americans consume a billion meals a day — the vast, vast, vast majority of them safely and enjoyably,” Boyle said. “And the positive development here is that these kinds of tragic illnesses are decreasing in America. These illnesses are down 60 percent in the last 10 years. So we are making significant progress.”
Two steps are available to eliminate E. coli in the ground beef supply, Boyle said. One is irradiation, which is not widely used. The second is through proper cooking of the product.
For another guest, even the promise of contamination-free beef wasn’t enough. Dr. Colin Campbell of Cornell University advocates a meat-free diet.
Campbell said he grew up on a dairy farm and for a long time held to the belief that animal protein was an essential part of a healthy diet. He said the results of years of research changed his mind.
The conclusion of his studies: “The closer we get to consuming a whole foods, plant-based diet, the healthier we’re going to be on all accounts.”
His research wasn’t selling for Nancy Rodriguez, a professor at the University of Connecticut. She says meat is a key part of a good diet.
“I think that animal proteins provide essential nutrients that you are able to get in a unique package of foods for, let’s say, about 200 calories — a three ounce serving of meat,” Rodriguez said. “And I think that when you make a choice to eliminate those animal products from your diet, it becomes a challenge, particularly for certain vulnerable populations such as infants and children, to get those nutrients in.”
Rodriguez said people choosing a vegetarian diet have to be extra diligent to supplement their diet with iron, zinc and calcium.
Chef Anthony Bourdain, host of TV’s “No Reservations,” doesn’t have a problem with meat consumption, but he has a big problem with how animals are raised and slaughtered.
Michelle Malkin weighs in on government meat control, Big Nanny Alert: The War on Hamburgers:
The Big Nanny bureaucrats will have to pry the Sonic Bacon Cheeseburger from my cold, dead hands…
But if the government wants to control meat consumption, and mandated food consumption controls will meet with strong opposition from Americans and industry leaders, then maybe going the leftists’ route of “it will help preventing global warming” is another potential avenue.
Global warming affected by burgers. I kid you not.
From Tim Slagle, Big Government: EPA’s Next Priority: Meat Control?
The really nice thing about having left-wing comedy hosts is that Democrat officials have absolutely no problem appearing on their talk shows. It’s really nice to have these people interviewed in a comfortable non-confrontational setting, because the darndest things will come out.
Bill Maher, in a rare hard-nosed moment, presses EPA administrator Lisa Jackson to answer a tough question about whether the EPA intends to regulate meat. After she dodges the question, Bill asks it again.
Here’s the video…
Bill Maher on Government’s Meat Control to Prevent Global Warming | October 2009
Slagle continues:
Now I could be wrong, because she was stuttering badly, but didn’t the United States EPA Administrator say that she is looking into Meat Control? She certainly advocated a restriction on food grown outside of the US.
But MEAT CONTROL? I’ve met a lot of vegetarians in my travels. I don’t really care about those who practice it themselves, although I often question their logic. I look at vegetarianism as a sort of religion, and have no problem with it being practiced in the privacy of one’s own cat-filled home. But in America we have a separation of church and state, and if you intend to force me to conform to your religious dietary restrictions, I’m going to make a little noise.
…Here’s an idea: if you want to be a vegetarian, and you are afraid you might burn yourself, stay out of McDonalds. I’m tired of having to cater to the lowest common denominator, and I don’t like their new luke warm coffee either.
Meat Control is exactly the kind of thing people warned about, when it was proposed that the EPA would be given the authority to regulate CO2. You might think I’m crazy, and conspiratorial; but back when smoking bans were popping up, some of us warned that soon smoking would be banned in bars, and that snack food would soon be regulated. The naysayers laughed at us.
Now that it is almost impossible to find a place where you can enjoy a cocktail with a smoke, trans-fats are illegal in New York, and a national soda tax has been proposed, I feel sullenly vindicated.
So I demand an answer from Ms. Jackson. Do you, or do you not, intend to regulate meat? Millions of Hungry Carnivores need to know.
Most Americans just want the government to stop butting into every single element of our lives. We don’t want anything resembling government’s “meat police,” understand?
Passionate reaction from The Snooper Report about the burger debate:
You know what? I love burgers. I always make special notes in my head about how all the vegans, veteranarians, I mean vegetarians are always trying to get the entire world to not eat meat. Screw ‘em. I LOVE burgers but my diet now is very limited so I don’t have that many anymore. I never eat out and have a hamburger because my wife makes GREAT ones. Michelle Malkin says: “The Big Nanny bureaucrats will have to pry the Sonic Bacon Cheeseburger from my cold, dead hands…” [...], and I don’t blame her one bit. Idiots…
And let us not forget Pres. Obama’s “legendary” lunch visit, fully televised by an adoring news station, at Ray’s Hell Burger back in May with VP Joe Biden… Damage-Control ‘Obama Food in the News’ Week: ‘Obama Date Time’ & ‘Joey & Barry Go Out for Burgers’. Do as I say, not as I eat…
Additional reading:
George Moneo, Babalú Blog: “Meat Control.” Yes, you read that correctly…
Founding Bloggers: From “Just Say No” – To Just Say “No Ho-Ho”
Obama Foodorama: On Larry King Live, Meat Safety In The Obama Era Gets Ground Up In Other Issues
Lonely Conservative: Oh Great – Now the EPA Wants to Kill the Cattle and Beef Industry
Doug Powers, Michelle Malkin: First Lady Gets Into the Restaurant’s Business
Frugal Café Blog Zone: They’re Coming… “Meat Police” to Save the Planet from Global Warming and Recommended ‘Green’ Diet from Enviro-Nutjobs: Eat Your Pets, Prevent Global Warming and “Sweatin’ to the Oldies with Obama”: Mandated Food and Exercise in Store for America the “Nanny State”?
Big Hollywood: Health Nazis Target Movie Snacks
The Underground Conservative: The War On … Hamburgers?
The Snooper Report: Hamburgers Are REALLY Bad For Me…
Riehl World View: The Key To Safe Hamburger
Gateway Pundit: It’s Come to This… Feds Subpoena Chuck E. Cheese
Track-A-’Crat: Warning: Stay Out Of Eating Range
Mary Grabar, Big Government: The Tangled Web of Green: Manufacturing a Public Scare
Centurean2′s Weblog: Control by Carbon: The Totalitarian Side of Climate Change ….
Michelle Malkin: Here come Michelle Obama’s food marketing police and And now for some hard-hitting reporting on Michelle Obama and No snitching on Michelle Obama allowed!
Fire Andrea Mitchell!: No photos of Michelle Obama allowed!
Barry Goldwater Jr., American Spectator: Health Care Amtrak-Style
Maggie’s Farm: Obama Blubbers Another One (UPDATED)
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Here is a good video on the subject: http://meat.org
PETA=People Eating Tasty Animals
I vote for eating farm raised animals or wild game.