Kamala Harris is not banning red meat despite Trump’s false claims.
Former President Donald Trump has recently been making false claims about Vice President Kamala Harris wanting to ban red meat if she wins in November. However, there is no truth to Trump’s accusations.
Harris has never shown support for passing laws to outlaw red meat in order to combat climate change, as Trump has misleadingly claimed at his rallies. Additionally, Harris is not planning to “get rid of your cows,” as Trump falsely stated in Pennsylvania.
In fact, during a 2019 climate change forum on CNN, Harris expressed her love for cheeseburgers and emphasized the importance of updating dietary recommendations to promote healthy and environmentally friendly eating habits instead of banning certain foods.
“Just to be very honest with you: I love cheeseburgers from time to time. Right? I mean, I just do,” Harris said. “But there has to be, also, what we do in terms of creating incentives that we will eat in a healthy way, that we will encourage moderation, and that we will be educated about the effects of our eating habits on our environment … and the government has to do a much better job of that.”
When asked about supporting changes to the food pyramid, Harris indicated that she would back reducing red meat consumption and including measures of the impact on the environment in nutrition guidelines.
According to Dr. Frank Hu, chair of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, there is a significant link between high intake of red and processed meats and an increased risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and premature death. However, Harris agrees that these meats are acceptable in moderation, with Hu recommending no more than two to three servings per week.
Scientific American reports that about 40% of greenhouse gases come from agriculture, deforestation, and land-use changes, with meat, especially beef, being a major contributor to climate change due to cows’ methane emissions and the conversion of forests to grazing land.
Increasing awareness of these environmental impacts through food labels or dietary guidelines does not equate to banning red meat. For instance, despite calorie counts being displayed in some states and localities, fast food restaurants like McDonald’s still serve popular items like Big Macs across the U.S.
Nevertheless, Republicans like Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz have attempted to portray Harris as radical by falsely accusing her of planning to eliminate beef. Similar claims were made about President Biden, with no such ban coming into effect.
“Kamala can’t have my guns, she can’t have my gasoline engine — and she sure as hell can’t have my steaks and cheeseburgers,” Cruz remarked on Fox News. Host Sean Hannity has also fixated on Harris’s alleged red-meat ban, calling her a “radical California leftist.”
In May, Harris shared that her go-to McDonald’s order is a Quarter Pounder with Cheese, showing that her food choices are not as extreme as her critics claim. She has also been seen dining on D.C.’s Ghostburger and sharing her meatball recipe on her YouTube series “Cooking with Kamala.”
Trump, on the other hand, enjoyed a well-done, $54 aged New York strip steak with ketchup during his first dinner out as president at BLT Prime by David Burke in Washington, D.C., in early 2017.
In conclusion, it is essential to fact-check statements made by political figures and not be swayed by misleading claims. Vice President Kamala Harris does not intend to ban red meat but rather advocates for informed consumer choices and healthy eating habits.
