We recently caught wind of an interesting new claim: that Joe Biden will be “cutting 90% of red meat from American’s diets by 2030.” A statement like this sounds bizarre. TOO bizarre, in fact. So we did a bit of digging and found the truth for ourselves.
Ok, in all honesty, we didn’t have to do much digging. This rumor was already investigated and broken down by Alex Kasprak, for Snopes. They managed to find both the original source for this rumor, along with the actual information that it spawned from. So what’s the truth?
No, Joe Biden is not taking meat away from American diets.
The Original Information
It started on April 22, when United States President Joe Biden spoke at the Virtual Leaders Summit on Climate, an international meeting of leaders to discuss planetary concerns. At the event, Biden stated that they intend to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half be 2030. He claimed that this would be through “good-paying, middle-class, union jobs.” He would expand on this, indicating reformation of the power grid into something more efficient, with the task creating jobs. He also mentioned electric vehicle manufacturing jobs and charging station construction work.
That’s where his input stopped.
Where the Rumor Started
So if he never mentioned meat, why is that what people are talking about? It started with an article by British tabloid The Daily Mail. In covering Biden’s statement, they speculated on other ways that the president could theoretically reduce emissions. This led them to a study by the University of Michigan, which (and this is simplifying) indicated that reducing meat consumption would help reduce greenhouse gasses.
This is because cow farming produces a surprising number of gasses that aren’t good for the environment. It’s literally from too many cow farts. Said study claimed that by cutting 90% of red meat consumption, we could reduce emissions by 51%. So when Biden claimed to cut emissions in half, they latched that onto this statistic.
In short, the Daily Mail speculated that Biden was going to reduce emissions by forcing a limit on red meat consumption, despite that never being said in Biden’s statements.
But a single article seldom does this. It’s when it’s shared by prominent figures. And sure enough, this was. These misleading statistics were picked up by outlets like Fox News and figures like Representative Lauren Boebert, who shared oversimplified versions of this already incorrect story.
The Truth
The truth is that Joe Biden is NOT planning to limit American consumption of red meat by 90%. It is a false claim made by a British tabloid that certain sensationalist platforms latched on to. How would they even control that kind of thing?
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