Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm has signed an unprecedented, unilateral declaration making this Saturday “Meatout Day” in her state, and encouraging Michiganders to eat vegetarian breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. Granholm peppers her declaration with a variety of claims about the supposed benefits of eating vegetarian meals and “risks” of consuming meat.
What makes it a special slap in the face? Saturday is also “National Agriculture Day,” which honors the important contributions of America's hard-working farmers. According to the most recent figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in the United States at 14.3 percent. It just doesn’t make sense for Gov. Granholm to degrade the $71 billion farming industry in her own state.
If anything, it’s a microcosm of the larger battle involving animal rights groups like PETA, the radical “Humane Society” of the United States, and the phony-baloney “Physicians Committee” for Responsible Medicine, all of whom are trying to reduce consumption of animal products across the board, often deceptively masked in “health” terms.
Nobody should argue that it’s a bad thing for people to eat more fruits and vegetables. But what anti-meat activists want is not a balanced diet, but the elimination of meat and dairy foods. There’s a big difference between the two, and Granholm’s meat-free declaration certainly doesn’t mince words about its goal.
But steak and hot dog lovers in the Wolverine State aren’t taking this lying down. As of this writing, the "Stop Michigan Meatout Day" Facebook group (just begun yesterday) has more than 1,500 members. And the group declaring Saturday to be “Michigan Meat Eaters Day” is also quickly accumulating supporters. One creative participant even spelled out the name “PETA” in cuts of steak.
In the end, Granholm may have sparked such a blowback that people will eat more meat on Saturday’s “Meatout Day” than they would have if she hadn’t made any declaration at all. Wouldn’t that be delicious?
