Kennedy’s choice to center animal products in American nutrition guidelines may mirror his own diet, but the changes were no doubt politically motivated. ‘I don’t think vegans fit into any administration,’ said Gary Yourofsky, a vegan and animal rights activist. Given veganism’s minority position in the culture and in politics, Yourofsky said he can’t be particularly fazed by the meat-heavy adjustments to national nutrition guidelines. ‘I didn’t find that to be offensive, he said of the changes. ‘I found it to be stupid’.
CNN: The day after Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was sworn in as secretary of Health and Human Services on a self-described mission to “Make America Healthy Again,” the vegan podcast host and animal rights activist Bob Linden posted a missive in several vegan Facebook groups, declaring it a “beginning” and an “opportunity”…Linden saw in Kennedy a potential vegan ally who, despite his carnivorous diet, promised to advocate against vaccine mandates, end animal testing and encourage Americans to quit processed foods.
A year later, Kennedy has made “real food” a pillar of his Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) framework. But his new nutrition guidelines and inverted food pyramid place a much stronger emphasis on red meat, whole milk and other animal products than previous government-issued nutritional suggestions. “I feel like it’s a betrayal,” Linden said in January. “I believe these new dietary restrictions are anti-American.” Linden said he defines the MAHA acronym differently now: “Meatheads are hijacking America’…
Kennedy has spent his time as health secretary speaking incessantly about his prolific consumption of red meat. Earlier this year, he said switching to a “carnivore diet” and eating beef around twice a day helped him achieve “mental clarity” and shed 20 pounds… Kennedy’s choice to center animal products in American nutrition guidelines may mirror his own diet, but the changes were no doubt politically motivated, said Laura Wright, a professor of English at Western Carolina University who studies veganism…
“I don’t think vegans fit into any administration,” said Gary Yourofsky, another vegan and animal rights activist whose combative messaging includes describing the slaughter of animals for food as rape, slavery and a holocaust. “Nobody truly understands veganism. Everybody eats meat, cheese, milk and eggs.” Kennedy has followed through on some of his pledges to supporters of animal rights. Late last year, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientists were told to end research on macaque monkeys, who’d been primarily used to study HIV prevention… But encouraging Americans to eat more meat is a policy ethics-focused vegans say they cannot abide
“I feel that veganism is a threat,” Wright said. “I’ve always felt that it’s so non-normative, and it’s so in many ways kind of anti-establishment, that the fact that it’s sort of been disappeared doesn’t surprise me.” Given veganism’s minority position in the culture and in politics, Yourofsky said he can’t be particularly fazed by the meat-heavy adjustments to national nutrition guidelines. “I didn’t find that to be offensive,” he said of the changes. “I found it to be stupid.” SCOTTIE ANDREW
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