The head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom, said at the recent COP28 conference that the world should shift to a plant-based diet in order to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.
“Our food systems are harming the health of our people and planet,” he said. “Food systems contribute to over 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions and account for almost one-third of the global burden of disease.”
He estimates that eight million lives could be saved each year with this one change. Although shifting away from red meat has been recommended for many years for health reasons, his motivation here appears to be purely environmental, with a context note on a video of him declaring the war on meat noting that climate change “refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns, mainly caused by human activities.”
He went on to say “I’m therefore very pleased that over 130 have signed the COP28 UAE Declaration on climate and health.” This includes the United States, who, under the Biden administration, signed this declaration.
The WHO’s war on meat is part of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) COP28 “roadmap” for reducing the rise in global temperatures by 1.5 degrees Celsius, in keeping with the Paris climate agreement.
Although the FAO claims the meat industry is harming the planet with its nitrogen and methane emissions, the jury is still out on this question, and researchers have found that methane actually traps heat in the atmosphere and forms cooling clouds that offset surface warming, meaning that livestock farming could actually be cooling the planet.
Ahead of the conference, Bloomberg News reported: “Nations that over-consume meat will be advised to limit their intake while developing countries — where under-consumption of meat adds to a prevalent nutrition challenge — will need to improve their livestock farming.”
Critics want WHO to focus on more pressing issues
The criticism began to pile up almost immediately, with lawyer and journalist Gordon Chang pointing out the WHO’s connections to the Chinese Communist Party.
He wrote on X: “[Tedros] and [the WHO] should be paying attention to [China’s’] biological weapons programs—including the [Chinese] ‘genetic drugs’—instead of pontificating on matters outside their scope of responsibility.”
Other critics accused Tedros of hypocrisy, such as Dr. Kat Lindley, who wrote: “I wonder what plant based delicacy he eats every day and is he eating insect snacks when he is hungry?! I suspect the answer is NO. Sometimes I listen to his words and just wonder what did we do to deserve this nonsense.”
Others felt he had taken a puzzling stance for an African person, with South African scientist Tim Noakes commenting: “Tedros must know that there is widespread protein malnutrition in Africa and the goal of his organisation should be to reverse that. Not to make it worse. Instead what he also really wants to [do] is to give Africa more vaccines. One reason why he comes to visit my neck of the woods.
As alarming as the WHO’s demands are, there are some climate groups that are taking the insanity even further. For example, the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, which is a globalist organization composed of almost 100 cities around the world, wants to completely eradicate the consumption of both meat and dairy by 2030.
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