The Secret Agenda to Restrict Meat

A rumor spread last month suggesting that 14 cities in the United States are planning to ban meat.

The news, which made its rounds mostly on conservative news websites, was that by 2030, the cities seek to achieve zero consumption of meat, zero consumption of dairy, three new clothing items per person each year, zero private vehicle ownership, and one short return airline flight per person every three years.

Close to 100 cities globally have already signed onto the deal. In the United States, this includes Austin, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Seattle.

As expected, establishment news outlets were quick to label the whole thing as fake; a big conspiracy theory, and another example of why disinformation is a threat to humanity.

Politifact declared “Social media post distorts climate report. No U.S. city is banning meat, dairy, new clothes, or cars.” Adding that, “We could find no evidence that any U.S. cities have agreed to ban meat, dairy, new clothes or private cars.”

Snopes, meanwhile, labeled it all as “false,” writing that “There is no plan for 14 U.S. cities to ban meat, dairy, and private cars by 2030.” And “We also found no evidence that a group of U.S. cities had signed onto plans to ban such products for consumption.”

But once you dig into these claims, you’ll find something odd. There’s a play on words happening.

In their defense, they’re latching on to technical errors made by some of the program’s critics. But in essence, the agenda is very real.

The technicalities are this: the cities aren’t planning to ban meat outright. They’re pushing to reduce meat consumption, with zero consumption being the target.

The same goes for the other goals. They’re very much real, but they’re not outright bans. The other technicality is that the program behind it isn’t binding. The cities involved are doing this voluntarily, through a global coalition of mayors.

It’s all part of the C40 Cities program. In October 2019, it declared on its website, “14 cities commit to sustainable food policies that will address the global climate emergency.” It claims that “Eating a sustainable diet and avoiding food waste could cut greenhouse gas emissions from the food we eat by more than 60%.” This was part of what it called the “Planetary Health Diet,” which it claimed “could save 11 million lives each year, if adopted universally.” And it stated, “Mayors will work with their citizens to achieve a ‘Planetary Health Diet’ for all by 2030.”

So, is this a “meat ban?”

Well, according to the C40 Cities website “Mayors will use their procurement powers to change what kind of food cities buy, and introduce policies that make healthy, delicious, and low-carbon food affordable and accessible for all. They’ll also reduce food loss and wasted food.” In other words, it’s not technically a ban. It’s an agenda that mayors across the United States, and around the world, have signed onto. And they’ll be using their powers in office, to change the kinds of foods their cities buy, and use policies to enact the agenda.

We can see this already happening globally. Take New York City as an example. The same year as the C40 Cities announcement, then-New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio announced New York City’s Green New Deal: an initiative to fight climate change costing billions.

And what does this $14 billion green new deal mean in practice? New York City’s Chief Climate Policy Advisor Daniel Zarrilli laid it out: “It also means converting every single vehicle in our city fleet to electric and renewable fuels. Going carbon neutral for our entire fleet means expanding our solar, which we’ve already increased sevenfold since 2013, it means cutting our beef purchases 50 percent, phasing out processed meat—a major source of our emissions.”

Eric Adams, the current New York City mayor, was also instrumental in pushing this agenda. In 2017, as Brooklyn Borough President, Mr. Adams worked with Mr. de Blasio to implement Meatless Mondays at 15 schools in Brooklyn.

This Meatless Monday program was expanded in 2019 by then-Mayor de Blasio to all of New York City’s public schools—that’s 1,700 schools.

And then in 2022, after Mr. Adams took office, New York City declared that its public school system would go meat-free every Friday.

It’s not ending there. In April this year, Mayor Adams vowed to reduce New York City’s food-based emissions at agencies by 33 percent over the next 7 years. In other words, by 2030. Perfectly in line with that 2030 initiative we’re told isn’t really a thing.

Of course, New York City is just one of the 14 U.S. cities directly onboard with the program. It’s not some big secret either.

The C40 Cities program has all the global cities involved listed publicly on its website. And many of these cities have actively been passing legislation in line with the agenda.