Study Suggests Labeling Beef as “High Climate Impact” to Reduce Consumption

(by James Murphy | Reprinted with permission from The New American.com) – The war against red meat continues. A recent study investigating the possible impacts of so-called climate impact menu labels finds that such labels may prove “an effective strategy to promote more sustainable restaurant food choices.”

The study done by researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the University of Michigan School of Public Health, and the Department of Human Ecology, University of California, Davis finds that customers may be more persuaded to choose more “climate friendly” options on menus that include a warning against how beef farming supposedly contributes to global warming.

“In this randomized clinical trial with 5049 US adults, 23% more participants in the high–climate impact label condition ordered a sustainable (ie, non–red meat) item and 10% more participants in the low–climate impact label condition ordered a sustainable item compared with the control group,” the study claims.

The study made some highly dubious claims about the meat industry’s role in climate change, which used to be referred to as global warming. Read Full Article >