A British barrister has predicted that eating meat will one day be viewed as a form of “ecocide” and made illegal because of the “damage” it does to the environment.
Speaking at the launch of the Vegan Now campaign, Michael Mansfield QC said in comments reported by The Telegraph: “I think when we look at the damage eating meat is doing to the planet it is not preposterous to think that one day it will become illegal.”
The concept may seem absurd, but the Nanny State in Britain has already introduced a ‘sugar tax’ on soft drinks and Public Health England’s draft guidelines tell restaurants and supermarkets to shrink the size of pizzas due to rising obesity. The UK has already become a hostile environment to smokers, with smoking banned inside public places, including pubs and restaurants, and work places.
While these related to forcing changes of Britons’ lifestyle for the purpose of improving health, Mr Mansfield’s suggestion stems from a perceived need to safeguard the health of the planet. Referencing the smoking ban, the lawyer continued: “There are plenty of things that were once commonplace that are now illegal such as smoking inside.
“We know that the top 3,000 companies in the world are responsible for more than £1.5 trillion worth of damage to the environment with meat and dairy production high on the list.
“It is time for a new law on ecocide to go alongside genocide and the other crimes against humanity.”
The vegetarian added that he wanted to “make ecocide an international crime” and blamed the United States and United Kingdom for blocking ‘ecocide’ being included as under the remit of the International Criminal Court.
An Oxford University study last year urged the government to impose a red meat tax — one enthusiastically backed by the Green party — while in Germany, legislators propose raising taxes on meat to 19 per cent to fight alleged man-made climate change.
Meat bans have been imposed on local scales to ‘fight’ climate change, with the London University’s leftist Goldsmith’s College having banned all beef products from its campus.
Vegetarianism and veganism are on the rise in the UK, with those who refrain from eating meat — or all animal products including eggs, milk, and cheese in the case of vegans — wanting their lifestyle choices to be recognised as a ‘protected characteristic’ in law, shielding them from discrimination in the same way a minority is protected from discrimination on grounds of race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation.
In June, lawyer Alex Monaco said that vegans should be exempt from the great British tradition of the Work Tea Round because it is discriminatory to ask them to handle milk.