New York City mayor Eric Adams is on a quest to cut the city’s “food-related emissions” by 33 percent by 2030, and not by making Gas-X free to residents. Adams, whom the New York Times reports is “a self-described vegan who sometimes eats fish,” has expressed support for the city reducing the amount of meat it serves at schools, hospitals and in other government-funded capacities.
“It is easy to talk about emissions that are coming from vehicles and how it impacts our carbon footprint,” Adams said. “It is easy to talk about the emissions that’s coming from buildings and how it impacts our environment. But we now have to talk about beef. And I don’t know if people are really ready for this conversation.”
The Times reports that Adams’s beef with beef comes on the heels of a report showing “food rivals transportation in the size of [New York City’s] carbon footprint.” According to a Duke professor the publication quotes, beef is the worst offender.
Beef also happens to be an excellent source of protein and other nutrients, including vitamin B12, iron, niacin and zinc. It’s also, Cockburn hopes, a key ingredient in the signature offering served by the city’s 3,100 iconic hotdog stands that keep New Yorkers alive. It’s bad enough he wants to deprive growing school children and sick hospital patients access to meat, but should Adams turn an eye to the private-industry sale of meat, he’ll be roasted.
Vegetarianism, meanwhile, is bad for you, and veganism even worse. A 2011 study published in the National Library of Medicine concluded, “The low dietary intake of protein and sulfur amino acids by a plant-eating population leads to subclinical protein malnutrition, explaining the origin of hyperhomocysteinemia and the increased vulnerability of these vegetarian subjects to cardiovascular diseases.”
Hyperhomocysteinemia! Do you hear that, Mayor Adams?! The vegan diet you follow, sir, is associated with nutritional deficiencies and an “increased risk for certain types of cancer, stroke, bone fractures, preterm birth and failure to thrive.”
“Failure to thrive” is exactly what has happened to the once great City of New York. Expect the decline to continue as the stereotypically aggressive, tough populace shrinks to an anemic, limp, soy-soaked shadow of its former self.
Were Cockburn a resident of the Big Apple, he would get out ASAP. Because whether it helps the environment or not, life is simply not worth living without the nutritious delight of a nice big juicy sirloin.
