When Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez first introduced her ambitious “Green New Deal” to ostensibly combat man-made climate change by transforming the nation into a centralized government-controlled socialist hellhole, many critics keyed in on an accompanying “fact sheet” that decried the level of methane emitted by “farting cows,” a greenhouse gas that some assert is causing significant and irreparable damage to the planet’s climate.
The fact sheet quickly disappeared following scrutiny, however, and supporters of the Green New Deal attempted to assure everyone that there was no need for concern, as there were no plans to ban the agricultural production of beef and other meats that sustain the diets of the American people.
We see now, though, that some Democrats really do want to ban — or at least significantly reduce to near nothing — methane-emitting cows on farms, as is evidenced in New York City’s own version of the Green New Deal, a $14 billion initiative titled OneNYC 2050,.
It’s broad set of goals allegedly aimed at combating climate change, achieving social justice and transitioning to a more sustainable city for the future.
The amount of utter nonsense and wishful thinking contained in that report is mind-boggling and it would take several articles to fully explain just how unattainable and economically disastrous the plan truly is.
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When the plan was initially released by Mayor Bill de Blasio, there were slightly misleading reports that one of the included initiatives involved the city essentially instituting a ban on processed meats like hot dogs, a staple of the American diet and a food item that New York City is itself quite famous for.
According to FactCheck.org, however, those initial reports got it wrong, and there is, at least as of now, no city-wide ban on hot dogs.
But there was an important element of truth to the story.
The proposed ban on processed meats and mandatory reduction in beef consumption would — again, at least as of now — be constrained to just city-run buildings and agencies, such as hospitals, prisons, and public schools. In other words, the city would no longer purchase beef and processed meats, though private establishments — like restaurants, street-corner vendors and baseball stadiums — could continue to sell and serve hot dogs.
Should American school kids be allowed to eat hot dogs?
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FactCheck.org quoted an email from a city spokesman:
“This policy would apply only to City purchases. The plan is to phase out completely purchases of processed meats by agencies, and reduce how much agencies spend on beef by 50 percent. This would affect, for example, hamburgers in NYC public school lunches. It would not impact hot dogs at baseball games, street vendors, restaurants, etc.”
So, New York City Democrats want to keep schoolchildren from American staples like hot dogs and hamburgers?
Also, we stress the “at least as of now” qualifier because the OneNYC 2050 plan makes it abundantly clear throughout that New York City residents will, in countless various ways, be compelled to make potentially significant lifestyle changes in order to aid and adapt to the city’s planned changes and comply with the purported climate-friendly and sustainable dictates on a sustainable and “livable climate.”
On page 21 of the 36-page document, part of a section about New Yorkers shifting to a more sustainable lifestyle, there are details for how the city plans to “Adopt more sustainable consumption practices in city government operations,” which involved a plan to “shift away from goods that have an outsized impact on the environment,” which includes beef and other processed meats.
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The city intends to use its Environmentally Preferable Purchasing policy and executive action to achieve, among other things, “reducing the purchasing of beef, and phasing out the purchasing of processed meat.”
The plan cites the supposed success of the “Meatless Mondays” policy that was foisted upon public school children by the government, and declared, “the City will reduce the purchasing of beef by 50 percent.”
“Beef has a relatively high environmental footprint compared to poultry, pork, and plant-based foods. Beef cattle, managing manure, and manufacturing fertilizer produces nitrous oxide and methane, two climate-warming pollutants 298 and 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, respectively,” the plan stated.
“Processed meat consumption is linked with increased risk of cancer and is often high in saturated fat and sodium which is linked with heart disease. This policy would offer health benefits to the most vulnerable New Yorkers,” the authoritarians added, proving that the do-gooders in City Hall really just have the health and well-being of New Yorkers in mind as they tell them what kinds of food they can and can’t eat.
Within that same section, the OneNYC 2050 plan also revealed how the city intends to completely do away with “unnecessary single-use plastic foodware,” such as “straws, cutlery, cups, plates, bowls, and trays” that are used once and thrown away.
That’s because those items are “petroleum-based products” that some view as an existential threat to the environment.
“The City is ending the purchasing of unnecessary single-use plastic foodware, switching to compostable, reusable, or recyclable alternatives while maintaining a sufficient supply of single-use plastic foodware for those who need it. And we will work with City Council to expand these requirements to private businesses,” the central planners at NYC’s Politburo declared.
That last line about the desire to “expand these requirements to private businesses,” while in this case appears limited to the single-use plastic foodware items, nevertheless provides justifiable concern that the prohibitions against beef and processed meat consumption could be similarly expanded to the private sector in New York City.
In the big scheme of things, New York City’s reduced consumption via government purchases of beef and processed meat products will have no discernible impact on the environment whatsoever, but will, in fact, expand and extend government control over yet another aspect of the people’s lives.
Anyone who actually believes that the New York City government will stop at just banning the purchase and sale of beef and processed meats and plastic straws/utensils at city-owned buildings and locations hasn’t been paying attention to how the left is incessantly seeking to gain more ground and exert more control over the citizenry.
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