It appears to start with a double cheeseburger and fries to make America healthy again. Earlier this month, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited Steak’n Shake in Florida and shared a meal with Fox News’ Sean Hannity. The setting was not a coincidence. Kennedy praised the fast food chain for switching edible oils from seed oil. “People are eating these fries,” Kennedy said he praises other beef tallow-fried restaurants, Popeye, Buffalo Wild Wings and Outback Steakhouse.
Put another way, if you order fries with Steak’n Shake, Cauliflower Wings at Buffalo Wild Wings, or Blooming Onion at Outback, the food is cooked with beef fat. For over a decade, reducing meat and other animal products has been idealized as a healthier, more ethical way of eating. Guidelines such as “Eat food. Not too much. Most are plants” may disproportionately appeal to liberals in big cities, but meat repulsion has been inevitable across the nation. Obama administration Passed the law To limit meat at school lunch. Recently, meat alternatives such as the Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat have flooded grocery store shelves, and the fast food giant is also available in burgers and nuggets. It all told the future that looked more like a tempe than a tomahawk steak. “Is this the beginning of the end of the meat?” I wrote it New York Times 2022.
Now, the goal of eating meat has lost its appeal. The convergence of cultural and nutritional changes overcharged by the return of renowned burger enthusiast President Donald Trump has brought the meat back to the heart of the American plate. It’s not just Magabro Mahama People who resist plant-based diets. The wider US area appears to be sending a clear message. Everyone should feel bad about eating meat.
Many people are relieved to hear that. Despite all the attention to why people should eat less meat (climate change, health, animal welfare), Americans continue to consume it more and more. Between 2014 and 2024, per capita consumption per year increased by around 28 pounds, equivalent to the breast of about 100 chickens. One way to understand this “flesh paradox,” as branded by ethicist Peter Singer Atlantic Ocean In 2023, there is a discrepancy between how people want to eat and how they actually do it. The idea that a suffering cow releases methane bombs into the atmosphere causes me torment, but I love the medium rare porterhouse.
Certainly, many people who self-identify as plant eaters don’t eat that way, Glyn Tonsaw, a professor of agricultural economics at Kansas State University, told me. He runs a monthly meat demand monitor nationwide, asking survey respondents to self-evaluate their meals and then report what they ate the day before. “The number of people who say they’re vegan or vegetarian is about half that true,” Tonsar said. In a few years, the inconsistency becomes even more obvious. In 2023, 7.9% of people who completed surveys that were self-declared as vegan or vegetarian, but only 1.8% actually ate that method. (The survey is partially funded by the meat industry.)
That dissonance is the function of eating less meat being wrapped in a conscientious and moral luster. As I wrote last year, labeling items as “plant-based” has become a symbol of health and goodness, and is used to sell virtually anything, whether edible or not. Of course, the campaign against meat has not disappeared. If you go to major grocery stores, you’ll find plenty of impossible burgers that are shrink wrapped.
However, recently, food landscapes have begun to resemble meatpia. Sweet Green is a chain that has become prominent by offering salads that are proud of their plant-based popularity, and currently runs the ads in the spotlight on a “protein plate” loaded with steak, chicken and salmon. Dried meat sticks – Think slim gym – ha The fastest growing snack category in the nation. Fast food chains, including McDonald’s and Carls Jr., have threw away their alternative meat options.
There are many reasons for this meat renaissance. America is obsessed with consuming more protein. This is an epidemic that is increasing due to the rise in people with GLP-1 drugs seeking a protein-rich diet. Plant-based meat once seemed to be on the path to becoming a staple of dinner, but its popularity is a free fall due to concerns about its cost, taste and health.
The embrace of meat is not only about food, but also about what it represents: tradition, strength, domination, muscle– Defend value on the right. (The “soy boy” is a common light-jourishing explanation for inadequately masculine liberals.) Conservatives have tried to turn meat into the frontlines of the culture war.I want to take away the hamburger. ” was published last year by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. No preemption He describes the sale of lab-grown meat in his state as part of “a global elite plan to force the world to force meat grown in Petri dishes and insects.”
Trump’s reelection strengthened the cause. The rise of carnivorous eating is part of a larger wave of right-wing influence on American culture. “I’m awakened” – climate-conscious and plant-based diet – is out. tradition, At least one specific version,last week. New Yorker We have announced “Revenge of American Steakhouses.” The efforts of the right to reestablish traditional gender norms create an environment in which gendered eating habits flourish. Men have eaten meat for longer than women. Half of the country’s beef is consumed by just 12% of the population, most of which are male. the study show Men who subscribe to traditional gender norms tend to eat more beef and chicken.
Some of the most vocal support for a lifestyle that is against meat comes from the so-called manosphere. It’s popular among them Young man who voted for Trump. The predominance of meat “conforms to the rise of masculine influencers,” told me Timothy Caulfield, a professor at the University of Alberta who studies men’s health trends. Many of the protagonists of Manosphere portray carnivorous eating as an antidote to the “attack on masculinity,” a topic of the left-wing right-wing.
Tucker Carlson documentary The end of the man We invite men to eat organ meat and raw eggs to boost testosterone levels. (There is little scientific evidence to support this.) Last year, Elon Musk appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast, suggesting that the climate impact of industrial meat is exaggerated. Both Mask and Logan promote all physical “carnivorous diet.” Other influencers encourage more extreme behaviors, such as eating raw beef skin for increased testosterone.
All this is happening amidst a confusion about what it means to eat well. The general view among the medical and scientific communities remains the same. Reducing the consumption of red and processed meat is suitable for human and planetary health. But the issue of carnivorous eating seems no longer clear, as the numbers for Promeets such as Kennedy and Trump challenge these views, rather than mentioning the institutions that support them.
Perhaps a decline in plant-based diet was inevitable. Recognition of many consequences of carnivorous eating first entered public consciousness in the late 2000s, after the release of the documentary. Food, Inc. A book like that The dilemma of omnivores. But the backlash against meat may have taken off for another reason, Georgia Tech food sociologist Bill Winder told me: The Great Recession made meat more expensive. Nearly 20 years from now, the idea of a meatless future seems quaint. It’s only ever known why you should eat less meat. I feel guilty about eating steak tartare, but it’s still my favorite dish. The commonality of this experience can feel like a free pass. As an ethicist singer, “Most people can easily keep doing what they believe is wrong as long as they have a lot of companies.” No one needs to keep a charade right now.
