Duane A. Lienemann, UNL Extension Educator
Webster County
April 16, 2011 Edition
I often start this column out with – “Gosh, what a difference a week can make!” Well it applies again this week. I got a good sunburn last Saturday and I was actually thinking it was much too hot for this time of the year. Now, as I write this, I am currently sitting in Lincoln with family looking forward to the Annual Huskers Spring Game, but feeling like it is still winter. We drove up in wind whipped snow with the car’s thermometer saying 33 degrees. The son-in-law put on a couple of logs in the fireplace and it actually seemed appropriate for what was going on outside. Even though I am looking forward to a sneak preview of the 2011 Husker football team, I don’t know if I have a heavy enough jacket for the game.
Nebraska’s fickle weather isn’t the only thing that chilled me this morning. I read an article in the Lincoln Journal Star this morning that really gave me the shivers. The piece entitled “Neal Barnard: Agricultural subsidies tax our health” got my attention. The title intrigued me, but then I realized that this Neal Barnard is the same guy who is President of a radical Vegan group called the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). I have been noticing that this group has been picking up steam in its anti-agriculture movement and this article neatly packaged under the guise of a “responsible doctor” verifies that fear. In my opinion Barnard distorts information and spouts figures that I cannot find any basis for. I will discuss that a little later. Let’s first look at this so-called committee of physicians for responsible medicine. According to Activistcash.com, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. PCRM is a fanatical animal rights group that seeks to remove eggs, milk, meat, and seafood from the American diet, and to eliminate the use of animals in scientific research. Despite its operational and financial ties to other animal activist groups and its close relationship with violent zealots, PCRM has successfully duped the media and much of the general public into believing that its pronouncements about the superiority of vegetarian-only diets represent the opinion of the medical community.
Furthermore, according to Newsweek magazine “Less than 5 percent of PCRM’s members are physicians.” While PCRM presents itself as a doctor-supported, unbiased source of health guidance, the group’s own literature echoes Newsweek’s observation that 95 percent of its members have no medical degrees. And even the five-percent doctor membership that PCRM claims is open to question. Anyone claiming to be a physician or a medical student can join without paying a dime -- even if their only motivation is to collect free waiting-room reading material.
PCRM’s anti-meat and anti-dairy tactics include newspaper op-eds like this one, as well as letters, campaigns against airports and school boards, and television commercials. One PCRM TV spot claims “The most dangerous thing our kids have to deal with today isn’t violence. It isn’t drugs. It’s unhealthy food.” PCRM’s prescription? “Vegetarian foods.” The American Medical Association (AMA), which actually represents the medical profession, has called PCRM a “fringe organization” that uses “unethical tactics” and is “interested in perverting medical science.”
PCRM is a font of medical disinformation. Often appearing in a lab coat, PCRM president Neal Barnard looks the part of a mainstream health expert. He also churns out a steady stream of reliably anti-meat and anti-dairy nutrition research. Although his “results” generally conclude that a vegan diet (practiced by a tiny fraction of Americans) will solve any of dozens of health problems, the mass media eats them up. And PCRM is media-savvy enough to take advantage.
Here is the part that really got me. Barnard was trained as a psychiatrist, not a nutritionist. His nutritional advice boils down to one basic message: don’t eat meat, or anything that comes from animals. PCRM has complained to the Federal Trade Commission about advertisements that depict milk as part of a healthy diet. It petitioned the government to slap meat and poultry with a “biohazard label,” adding in its newsletter that eggs should carry these dire warnings as well.
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has participated in scare campaigns about pollution from livestock farming, meat irradiation, mad cow disease, and the alleged overuse of antibiotics in farm animals. Those disparate causes have one common element: they all serve to frighten consumers away from eating meat. This is exactly what the animal liberationists at PCRM want. The evidence that PCRM is an animal rights group is overwhelming. In 2003, Neal Barnard was nominated for induction into the “Animal Rights Hall of Fame.” He has also served many years as a contributing editor to The Animals' Agenda magazine, writing frequent columns on animal-rights topics.
This group is also heavily associated with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, receiving serious financial support from the organization under a tax exempt status. Neal Barnard and PETA co-founder Ingrid Newkirk are linked to several off -shoot associations. Oh, and incidentally, Barnard is PETA’s “medical advisor” and regularly writes for PETA’s publications. As far as the claims on dollars put towards subsidies I could spend several hours and several pages. I suggest you go to http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/print_in_the_farm_bill_how_much_money.html and then remember that this group distorts medical facts. Why would they stop short in distorting facts about agriculture and agriculture statistics. OK, I feel warmer now! It is amazing how when you get your blood boiling how it can fend off a Nebraska spring weather surprise. Go Big Red!
The preceding information comes from the research and personal observations of the writer which may or may not reflect the views of UNL or UNL Extension. For more further information on these or other topics contact D. A. Lienemann, UNL Extension Educator for Webster County in Red Cloud, (402) 746-3417 or email to: dlienemann2@unl.edu or go to the website at: www.webster.unl.edu/home
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