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    • Grill a steak and thank a rancher

    As we dig out from the heavy snowfall across the state last week and continue to contend with a cold winter that seems slow to end, most of us are dreaming of warm summer days with burgers or a juicy steak on the grill. But is our summertime tradition at risk? Climate change cultists are not just worried about your SUV, they are looking at your backyard grill and the meat you put on it in the misguided war on carbon.

    Several weeks ago, some media outlets carried a study from the University of Manchester that looked at the carbon footprint of sandwiches. According to the study, a breakfast sandwich is equal to driving for 12 miles in your car, so to save the planet we need to cut back on sandwiches.

    OK, it is easy to laugh off stories about the carbon footprint of a sandwich or the story CNN ran a few years ago titled “Why Beef is the New SUV,” but the push to de-carbonize our lives is moving ahead. Just ask the ranchers in California who are already dealing with costly (and goofy) methane capture regulations.

    From cutting back on sandwich consumption to capturing methane as it escapes a cow (don’t ask), now there is a growing push for a “meat tax.” According to a PETA spokesperson, “We’ve never been closer to a meat tax.” It is considered a “sin tax,” and like most of the initiatives from the climate change cultists, it will hit the poor and the elderly the hardest. There is a very real moral cost to these anti-carbon efforts.

    All of this is done with the goal to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Despite the “scientific consensus,” there is no proof that human linked carbon dioxide leads to global warming, global cooling, or whatever we are supposed to be worried about this week. The truth is CO2 is good for the planet, so feel free to keep breathing.

    Next on the anti-carbon menu? Lab-grown meat. A Feb. 16, 2018, article from Wired magazine titled “Lab-Grown Meat Is Coming, Whether You Like It or Not” tells us this advancement is vital to our future because livestock are hard on the planet. “One cow can consume up to 11,000 gallons of water a year. Worldwide, livestock may be responsible for 15 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.”

    So, just to be clear, we need to start eating meat from a petri dish because livestock may be responsible for 15 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, which emissions may or may not cause global warming. Got it, count me out.

    Our state is under constant attack for the energy products that we produce and now the radical environmentalists are coming after the agriculture industry. Our farmers and ranchers face significant challenges feeding the world and being stewards of the land. They do not need the cost, aggravation and regulation that comes with the misguided war on carbon. Grill a steak and thank a rancher.

    Grande represented the 41st District in the N.D. Legislature from 1996 to 2014. She is a wife, mom, grandma, research fellow with the Heartland Institute, lover of life and Jesus.

    First published in the Fargo Forum

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