Fire up the grill, fellas… This week, Andrew talks to journalist and author Joe Fassler, who went undercover for The Guardian to investigate an invite-only “beefluencer” training program created by America’s biggest beef lobby. What he uncovered was a complex public messaging machine funneling beef industry climate denialism through university-affiliated research groups and into the Facebook feeds of your unsuspecting friends and neighbors. How do you like your psy-ops: rare, medium, or well done?
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For further reading, you can find Joe’s article and other links below.
Read Joe’s article, “Inside big beef’s climate messaging machine: confuse, defend and downplay”
Read the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nation’s report, “Livestock’s Long Shadow”
Watch an early “Beef, It’s What’s For Dinner” TV commercial
Read this study on the cumulative impacts of industrial beef production
Guest bio:
Joe Fassler is a writer and editor based in Colorado, USA. His writing on food, environmental issues, books, and culture has been published in The New York Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and The Best American Food Writing. He’s currently at work on a novel, forthcoming from Penguin Books, called The Sky Was Ours.
