In today’s USA Today, the anti-meat and anti-dairy group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) continues its long history of using junk science and scare tactics to advance its agenda. PCRM’s nutrition director calls meat-friendly dietary recommendations “reckless,” and argues that the only responsible thing for the U.S. government to do is “to educate Americans about the powerful health advantanges [sic] of a plant-food diet, free of disease-causing animal products.” Before we buy into the lie that meat is the dietary devil, and before we consider taking meat off the plate for good, let’s remember that PCRM is not a serious source of public health wisdom. Rather, it is an animal-rights front group. Its goals are to abolish the use of animals as food (including milk and eggs), and to eliminate the use of animals for advancing science and medicine. The group’s president, Neal Barnard, co-chairs the multi-million-dollar Foundation to Support Animal Protection with PETA president Ingrid Newkirk. The American Medical Association’s opinion is unequivocal, calling the Physicians Committee’s recommendations “irresponsible and potentially dangerous to the health and welfare of Americans.” In a separate public censure, the AMA’s board of directors mused on “how effectively a fringe organization of questionable repute continues to hoodwink the media with a series of questionable research that fails to enhance public health.”
