Outrage against CSIRO's green vegetarian advice

If you care about the planet you must be a 'tofu-munching climate change extremist animal libber.' According to Western Victorian Liberal MP John Vogels.

When I read about CSIRO releasing a green living book which, amongst other things, promoted a vegetarian lifestyle I was surprised but delighted nonetheless. In their own words, CSIRO are all about "Large-scale, long-term, multidisciplinary science to address Australia's major national challenges and opportunities."

And I agree, going veg has got to be one of the best long-term, large-scale ways of reducing environmental impact and improving health, and both of these things, among others, is what CSIRO is here for.

However, Mr Vogels declares this a "kindergarten view" and we should spend taxpayers' money on improving the efficiency of coal-fired power stations. He, in effect, denies that agribusiness has a negative impact on the environment.

It's not hard to see which side of the fence he sits on. His concern isn't about green living, it's about industry. He claims the CSIRO was created 90 years ago to support these industries and, through this book, is now being used to close down agribusiness. Perhaps, Mr Vogel, through all the research and science they have been doing in the last 90 years they have realised that living green and living healthy are no longer linked to eating meat - and in fact are rapidly aligning themselves to be polar opposites to agribusiness.

If you care about climate change, you don't deny the facts in order to maintain the industrial status quo. The fact that his concern is so clearly about the risk of forcing farmers off the land and doesn't even brush upon the realities of climate change and the effects of agribusiness makes it worrying about where his heart lies.

To quote Mr Vogel: '"It seems tofu-munching climate change extremists and animal libbers have taken over the CSIRO, wasting taxpayer funds to publish books designed to wipe out our agriculture industries with the ultimate goal of forcing farmers off the land," Mr Vogels said.

"As a nation we need to move beyond the kindergarten view that livestock generate greenhouse gas emissions and focus climate change strategies on reducing those emissions which are genuine pollutants."'

Yep, it's bad. You couldn't even make this stuff up. Read the rest here.

It's not hard to see why many would opt for making the coal-fired power stations greener, as opposed to going veg. The former doesn't require any personal commitment of your own and wipes your hands clean of any responsibility.