You may have read the recent news that it’s okay for us to continue consuming meat. This is yet another campaign by the Big Meat industry in fear of losing money to the now popular vegan movement.
The original publication goes back to Bradley C. Johnston who published the official report. Bradley Johnston is a Canadian epidemiologist but the report contradicts the evidence that eating red meat can cause type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, some cancers and premature death!
Bradley has a past relationship with a powerful industry trade group called International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI). ILSI is a front organization founded by Coca-Cola exec Alex Malaspina. Behind the scenes, it funds and represents food-industry interests internationally. The institute lists its members and supporting companies, one of which is Cargill.
You may not have heard of Cargill even though it’s one of the largest privately held corporations in the US. Operating in the shadows, it supplies animal feed while being one of the world’s largest meat-producing entities. It sources meat for McDonald’s and plays a huge part in the destruction of the Amazon.
Companies like Cargill can operate like this largely in part due to the Bolsonaro government. Jair Bolsonaro, Brazilian’s president is in favour of companies and countries exploiting the Amazon to help the Brazilian economy. He’s opposed to the conservation of the Amazon. You can see that from Bolsonaro’s leaked internal document:

He also blames non-government organizations for the fires. NGOs and environmentalists are a threat to his agenda:

Other entities and officials enable this agenda. Take the UN for instance. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is the UN’s migration agency and it receives 1/4th of its budget from the US. The US state department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) provides 18 million of that amount. The Guardian published a source in the US who had recently left IOM saying “I’ve seen a response from at least one regional official who explicitly asked staff not to directly refer to climate change or the global compact on migration in a range of reports or proposals that would be sent to the US government”.

Some entities exist to shape entire climate misinformation campaigns. See the leaked documents from the Climate Intelligence Foundation – CLINTEL.
Multimillionaire real estate developer Niek Sandmann funds CLINTEL. The co-founder is Guus Berkhout who set up the Delphi Consortium that develops new exploration methods for the oil and gas industry. All the signatures on the paper are from climate deniers. For example, Jeffrey Foss’s signature is on it – a Canadian professor who contributes to FCPP. FCPP’s motto is “Clearing the PR Pollution that Clouds Climate Science” and for Canada to “live up to its vast but unrealized economic potential.”
So animal agriculture is bringing climate turmoil while dark forces drive the meat industry and cover up the truth. As a consumer, what can you do?
Actions You Can Take
- Adopt a plant-based diet.
- The federal election is coming up for Canada. Help flood the inboxes of every candidate to let them know that climate change is not a partisan issue.
- Thinking of exposing the truth? Make sure to do it safety so you can continue to do so.
- Get political or find a climate action in your area!