Food & Climate
There are signs of increased meat consumption in America following the election of President Donald Trump and the start of his term in January. This could mean further climate damage, as reducing methane emissions requires reducing meat consumption.
Now the goal of eating less meat has lost its appeal. A convergence of cultural and nutritional shifts, supercharged by the return of the noted hamburger-lover President Donald Trump, has thrust meat back to the center of the American plate. It’s not just MAGA bros and MAHA moms who resist plant-based eating. A wide swath of the U.S. seems to be sending a clear message: Nobody should feel bad about eating meat.
Many people are relieved to hear it. Despite all of the attention on why people should eat less meat—climate change, health, animal welfare—Americans have kept consuming more and more of it. From 2014 to 2024, annual per capita meat consumption rose by nearly 28 pounds, the equivalent of roughly 100 chicken breasts.
One way to make sense of this “meat paradox,” as the ethicist Peter Singer branded it, is that there is a misalignment between how people want to eat and the way they actually do. The thought of suffering cows releasing methane bombs into the atmosphere pains me, but I love a medium-rare porterhouse, according to a report seen by “Food & Climate” platform.
The reasons of renaissance of meat consumption in America
There are a lot of different reasons for this renaissance of meat consumption in America: America has become obsessed with consuming more protein, a fad boosted by the growing numbers of people on GLP-1 drugs seeking out protein-rich diets.
GLP-1 agonists are medications that help lower blood sugar levels and promote weight loss.
Plant-based meat once seemed to be on a path to becoming a dinner staple, but its popularity is in free fall due to concerns about its cost, taste, and healthfulness.
The embrace of meat isn’t just about food, but also about what meat represents: tradition, strength, dominance, muscles—values championed by the right. (There’s a reason that “soy boy” is a common pejorative to describe insufficiently masculine liberals.) Conservatives have long sought to turn meat into a front in the culture wars, even suggesting that Democrats “want to take away your hamburgers.” Last year, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued a preemptive ban on the sale of lab-grown meat in his state, describing it as part of “the global elite’s plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish, or bugs.”
Trump’s reelection has bolstered the cause. The rise of meat-eating is part of the larger wave of right-wing influence on American culture. “Woke”—DEI, caring about the climate, eating plant-based—is out. Tradition, at least one specific version of it, is in. Last week, The New Yorker announced the “Revenge of the American Steakhouse,” which, to some, signals a “restoration of the proper order.”
Efforts on the right to reestablish conventional gender norms create an environment for gendered eating habits to thrive. Men have long eaten more meat than women; half the nation’s beef is consumed by just 12 percent of the population, most of them men. Research shows that men who subscribe to traditional gender norms tend to eat more beef and chicken.
Trump and Musk
Trump, hamburger-loving, has appointed Elon Musk, the businessman and founder of the electric car company Tesla, to be a member of his cabinet. Musk makes no secret of his love and encouragement of meat consumption, which means more meat consumption in America.
Last year, Elon Musk appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast and suggested that the climate impacts of industrial meat are overblown: “You can totally eat as much meat as you want,” he said. Both Musk and Rogan have promoted the all-meat “carnivore diet.” Other influencers encourage more extreme behaviors, such as eating raw beef testicles for a testosterone boost.
Some of the most vocal support for the meat-forward lifestyle emanates from the so-called manosphere, a right-leaning internet subculture best known for men promoting different ways to become manlier. It is popular among the young men who voted for Trump in large numbers. Meat’s ascendance “coincides with the rise of the masculine influencers,” Timothy Caulfield, a professor at the University of Alberta who studies male health trends, told me. Many of the manosphere’s main characters frame meat-eating as an antidote to the left’s “attack on masculinity,” a recurring right-wing talking point.
Tucker Carlson’s documentary The End of Men calls on men to eat organ meat and raw eggs to boost their testosterone levels. (Little scientific evidence exists to support this.)
All of this is happening amid confusion about what it even means to eat well. The prevailing view among the medical and scientific community has not changed: Reducing consumption of red and processed meats is better for human and planetary health. But as pro-meat figures such as Kennedy and Trump challenge those views—not to mention the institutions that support them—the problems with meat-eating no longer seem as clear-cut, according to “The Atlantic“.