Yesterday–just YESTERDAY!–I wrote about how rice is in the crosshairs because the global warming cult wants to reduce greenhouse gases.

Rice is the staple food for 1/3rd of the world’s population, and provides 1/5th of the total calories ingested by human beings. There is little slack in the supply of rice, so even small decreases in production lead to large increases in price, as is the case with gasoline. Inelastic demand does that to prices.

In less than a day I run across yet another example of the elite’s war on food in the name of saving Gaia. This time the Mayor of New York City, who apparently has nothing better to do than bloviate about our meat and dairy consumption, held a press conference denouncing meat and dairy consumption.

What are the people at the UN eating? https://t.co/4G5KJZ7ymo

— F* Your Short Memory 🏴 Anti-Cult of Absurdity (@BucMon21) April 18, 2023

It’s insane, of course, and yet one more example of the “eat bugs, peasants” mentality that for some reason has consumed our elites.

Of course, Mayor Adams can’t ban meat and dairy for all New Yorkers, but he can make a start given how much purchasing power the city has.

Mayor Eric Adams on Monday vowed to reduce emissions tied to city food procurements by 33% by 2030. New York City estimates that its food purchases produce as much carbon as the annual exhaust from more than 70,000 gas-fueled cars. https://t.co/9Yl3mfDnMc

— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 17, 2023

The Mayor certainly has a lot of leverage. The city spends $300 million a year on food, and he can deny essential nutrition to the students and others who are fed by the government.,

New York City’s one million public school students could lunch on “cheesy garlic pizza,” green beans and salad on Monday. But not roast beef.

Patients at New York City’s public hospitals might dine on paella — seafood not included — or a Moroccan root vegetable tagine.

In New York City-run facilities, meat is increasingly missing from the menu.

Mayor Eric Adams on Monday vowed to reduce emissions tied to city food procurementsby 33 percent by 2030, unveiling data showing that in New York City, food consumption rivals transportation as a source of planet-warming gases.

Every year, New York City spends roughly $300 million buying food — for public school students, for detainees on Rikers Island, and for patients admitted to its 11 public hospitals. The city estimates that its food purchases produce as much carbon as the annual exhaust from more than 70,000 gas-fueled cars. In 2021, during the last year of Bill de Blasio’s mayoralty, the city committed to cutting its food-related emissions by 25 percent by 2030.

Monday’s announcement increased that commitment to 33 percent.

The commitment to eliminate meat from our diets predated global warming fanaticism. Just as the agenda to eliminate oil use and deindustrialize the economy predated global warming hysteria. Global warming propaganda is caused by the anti-capitalist/anti-human ideology, not a result of it. Go back decades and you can find all the same policy goals promoted by the Left, with ever-changing excuses for pursuing them. Think Paul Ehrlich, who is in vogue again. He wanted to depopulate the Earth and immiserate human beings long before carbon dioxide was a worry.

The claim that meat is bad for you is manifestly false. Global lifespans and meat consumption have risen in tandem, and a simple examination of various data shows that even if there are health negatives associated with meat, the positives outweigh them in most cases.

Consider Japan. Its citizens’ meat consumption has increased over the decades, as has their height.

According to Japans National Health and Nutrition Survey, the average height for a man in Japan was only 160.3 cm (5 feet 2 inches) and the average height for women in Japan was only 148.9 cm (4 feet 9 inches) 70 years ago, which shows that there is approximately 10 cm height increase in Japan over the 70 years.

Protein quantity and quality both correlate highly with height and while a 100% meat diet may be suboptimal, it’s pretty clear that to duplicate the protein and nutritional opportunities that exist with a meat-based diet a vegan has to work very hard and spend a lot of money, not to mention become a complete jerk. It’s theoretically possible, but impractical for most people.

Tufts Medical Center explains:

Vegan diets can be a part of a healthy lifestyle when planned and implemented correctly. Like any eating plan to restrict specific food groups, vegan diets can come up short in essential nutrients such as protein, calcium, iron and vitamin B12. If planned and supplemented (as needed) appropriately, vegan diets can certainly be a part of a healthy lifestyle.

Now consider this: do you think that schoolchildren will be compliant with all the requirements that a vegan diet requires to ensure they don’t suffer malnutrition?

Of course, it’s not like government-supplied food is actually healthy for you, so perhaps I am being unfair. Anything the government feeds you is likely to be bad for you, so it may as well be vegan.

“I always say we have two mothers: One gave birth to us, the other sustains us, and we have been destroying the one that sustains us based on the food that we have been consuming,” Mr. Adams said on Monday.

New York City schools already abstain from serving meat on Mondays and Fridays. Its public hospitals have made vegetarian dishes the default option, though patients who want meat can still get it. Mr. Adams’s announcement on Monday suggests the city will be serving even less beef at its facilities in the coming years, though it has yet to specify specific reduction targets.

Now I freely admit that my own diet isn’t the healthiest, but then again I am not doing everything I can to make the world duplicate what I eat. That is a significant difference.

Government officials seem determined to micromanage our lives, perhaps because they are utterly incapable of managing the responsibilities given to them by the citizens who voted for them.

Can’t control crime or keep the subways clean? Those are hard.

Controlling how much meat the city allows its dependents to eat is much simpler, and makes for a good press conference.