The production and eating of beef (and other red meat) has come under attack in recent years by political forces trying to impose vegetarian lifestyles on people around the world. Some of this is done in the name of climate change. Most of the arguments used are bogus and have been discredited, but continue to be repeated. McLaughlin Farm encourages its customers and friends to join the effort of publicizing the truth about livestock production and the unsurpassed health benefits of eating meat, and beef in particular.
McLaughlin Farm supports the efforts of Diana Rodgers as a strong advocate of meat-based nutrition and the important environmental benefits of livestock. Diana visited McLaughlin Farm in the fall of 2021 when she presented her movie, Sacred Cow at the 70th Annual Meeting of The American Highland Cattle Association that was held in Michigan.
This movie is based on Diana’s book of the same name. She addresses the false information used against meat. As stated on the Sacred Cow website: “It’s commonplace today to blame meat for everything from cancer to global warming. We’re rightly scared about our health and our world. But are cattle being unfairly scapegoated?”
Sacred Cow explores all of the issues surrounding meat and its production and hopes to “create a new dialogue examining our cultural bias against cattle, pointing out the importance of red meat to our food system and how well managed grazing animals are one of our best solutions to repair the damages of our industrial agricultural system.”
Why Sacred Cow?
From the Sacred Cow website:
It’s commonplace today to blame meat for everything from cancer to global warming. We’re rightly scared about our health and our world. But are cattle being unfairly scapegoated? At Sacred Cow, we question the following:
- Should we eat meat at all?
- Is there a “best” diet for humans? Or is there a spectrum of optimal human nutrition?
- Can meat be part of a sustainable food system?
- Can a sustainable food system exist without meat and animal contributions, both nutritionally and environmentally?
- How important are ethics in the story of human nutrition and sustainability?
In our increasingly polarized world, where it’s all or nothing, this book is here to introduce some much-needed nuance. If you’re an ethical omnivore concerned about the environmental impact of your food choices, this site is for you. If you’re a vegetarian or vegan but are considering eating meat again, this site is for you. If you’re familiar with how cattle can be part of a regenerative food system, but still worried red meat will kill you, this site is for you. If you’re open to science, then this site is definitely for you.
The Sacred Cow Project explores our relationship to the food we eat, and offers a different view on the future of food production. We publish a blog, produce podcasts featuring food producers and health experts, and run insightful social media posts. The book, Sacred Cow: The Case for (Better) Meat and the documentary film will launch in 2020. Our hope is to create a new dialogue examining our cultural bias against cattle, pointing out the importance of red meat to our food system and how well managed grazing animals are one of our best solutions to repair the damages of our industrial agricultural system.
About the Sacred Cow Movie
Sacred Cow probes the fundamental moral, environmental, and nutritional quandaries we face in raising and eating animals. In this film project, the creators have focused their lens on the largest and perhaps most maligned of farmed animals, the cow.
Real Food Nutrition, Author, & Sustainability Advocate Diana Rodgers (RD) says, “This is our opportunity to acknowledge the power of regenerative agriculture to heal ourselves and our soil from the industrial food system.”
In “Sacred Cow,” Diana debunks all of the usual myths concerning meat and its production. She offers scientific data and free graphics that provides producers, consumers, and anyone else that is interested, important arguments on these issues.
The Global Food Justice Alliance website contains some of this information, as well as many resources by other persons supporting this important work.