A mafia can be defined as a secretive and highly organized criminal syndicate, often involved in various illegal activities such as extortion, racketeering, drug trafficking, money laundering, and other criminal enterprises (ChatGPT).
So perhaps in a purely literal sense, the meat industry is not a mafia, and the head honchoes of big meat aren’t exactly like Don Vito (Marlon Brando) and Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) of The God Father franchise.
But in many ways, they come close.
Of course, other destructive industries with powerful lobby groups such as oil and gas and, of course, weapons, can also be considered mafias in their own way, as touched on in my article Lobbying Our Way to the Bottom.
But here we’ll delve into the dynamics of an age-old industry whose only mission is to keep humanity addicted to animal flesh, with no regard for how it affects the planet, human health, and of course, animals themselves.
And believe it or not, those who have refused to kiss Big Meat’s ring have sometimes ended up in a world of trouble.
Diving into the meat of the issue
So what’s wrong with meat, you may be wondering? Afterall, human beings have been consuming animals since the dawn of time, an act that has transcended generations and geographic locations across the globe.
Well, for one, human beings have been doing a lot of things since the dawn of time, from conquering, raping, and killing each other to enslaving those we deem inferior to our own tribe.
And yes, in many cases, such atrocities were considered normal, and being a contrarian was basically a form of blasphemy.
(I recommend you read Carnism, the invisible religion)
Now, back to the animals.
Each year around 70 billion land animals are bred into existence, where most of them are raised in a horrific environment on factory farms, many of them barely able to move, before their throats are slit.
Then there are the environmental costs. Animal ag today is the leading cause of land use, species extinction, Amazon rainforest deforestation and water depletion at a global scale, while also doing its part to heat up the planet and throw our climate system into disarray.
And no, humans don’t need to eat animal flesh, and are often healthier without it.
Bullying their way into the economy
Sure, the above title may not be accurate or even fair, since the meat industry can be perceived as always having been part of the global economy, or always having been… there.
But regardless of how long people have been paying other people to breed and kill animals to eat them, it’s possible the industry would have gradually faded away over a century ago.
That is, of course, if it wasn’t for its aggressive tactics to stay in business, pressuring governments to subsidize them while misleading the public to believe foods derived from animals are imperative for optimal human health, when the reality is quite the opposite.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association was founded in the United States in 1898, over 220 years ago.
Since then, a countless number of similar lobby groups sprouted into existence across the U.S. and the globe. Their goal, making sure government initiatives remain favorable to the meat, egg, dairy, and egg industries.
Sure, just like the oil and gas industry, they’ve spent exorbitant amounts of cash investing in a decades long blitzkrieg campaign against climate action while sowing doubt about the causal relationship between animal ag and climate change.
But one can also argue that they’ve gone a few steps further.
In some ways their “initiatives” remind me of a famous quote from The God Father, when Don Vito Corleone says, “I made him an offer he can’t refuse” in reference to his negotiating of a deal with the owner of a lucrative business that the mafia wants to take over.
The “offer” is to put a gun to the person’s head and say, “on that paper we’ll either see your signature… or your brains.”
In 1977, five years after The God Father was released, US dietary advice changed from “decrease consumption of meat” to “have two or three daily servings”, a monumental shift of advice in which the meat lobby played a major role.
In 1991, just one year after The God Father part three hit theaters (as well as Goodfellas), the US Department of Agriculture was forced to withdraw its Eating Right Pyramid, which advocated for a diet that includes more plant foods, under pressure from the meat and dairy lobby.
Did the US Department of Agriculture receive an offer they couldn’t refuse?
The animal agriculture lobby has also convinced legislators to enact “ag gag laws”, which go as far as suing individuals for anything from publicly exposing the cruelty that takes place on factory farms to simply talking bad about meat to an audience.
In 1997, Oprah Winfrey was sued for dissing a burger on her show.
At the time, both Winfrey and Howard Lyman, a former cattle rancher turned animal activist, were sued in a federal district court in the US state of Texas for allegedly “disparaging beef”.
The meat mafia has even gone as far as pressuring the United Nations to promote more global meat and dairy production, not to mention influencing entire health organizations and the media.
Influencing influencers with an offer they can’t refuse
If you go on Youtube or TikTok or just about any other social media platform, especially those that provide more visual stimulation, and you type in the term “vegan” or “veganism”, you may find a few videos advocating for this kind of lifestyle, but you may also be inundated by a plethora of videos titled “veganism debunked” or attractive young bodybuilders and even doctors and nutritionists discussing the “benefits” of the now popular meat diet.
The Guardian recently published a report on how big beef keeps itself in business by way of some of the most creative methods, from creating a Masters of Beef Advocacy program which teaches “scientific sounding arguments on cattle’s sustainability in an all out public relations war” (created by the previously mentioned National Cattlemen’s Beef Association-NCBA) to funding studies and even the agricultural departments of universities, while also getting celebrity chefs and influencers to proselytize the supposed benefits of meat consumption.
The meat industry lobby has even been reported as “working with” celebrity chef Lamar Moore (among others), encouraging him to go on the record to shine meat consumption in a positive light, and the Beef Board actively promotes the tactic of getting social media influencers and celebrities to make meat consumption seem as attractive as possible to the masses, indorsing the “meat diet” and “debunking” contrarian sources of information, be them plant-based influencers, nutritionists, doctors, or documentaries that promote plant-based lifestyles.
Sound familiar, Big Tobacco?
Admittedly, I doubt they are literally putting a gun to the politicians’, celebrity chefs’ and influencers’ heads and giving them the choice of having their signature or their brains on a contract.
Money is usually a good enough offer to not refuse.
Don’t let anybody kid you. It’s all personal, every bit of business
The above is another famous quote from The God Father, but it could be interpreted in numerous ways, depending on the reality we are living at the time.
Today’s reality is that the meat mafia inflicts massive suffering on billions of helpless animals each year while bulldozing millions of acres of rainforest and other habitats (while also polluting our rivers and oceans and helping to heat up the planet) just to stay in business.
Sure, we can interpret their tactics to make the world believe their products are necessary as “just business”, but for those of us who actually care, it’s personal.
Unfortunately, this is how big business works, be it Big Beef, Big Oil, Big Pharma, or Big Weapons.
Regardless of how these industries manipulate citizens on every continent (some may argue we want to be manipulated), our relentless consumption of meat, along with the world’s resources, will likely catch up to us sooner than later.
But who knows? Maybe the planet will make us an offer we can’t refuse.
