The Meat Industry’s Panic Button: Veganism Isn’t Dead After All | Rising Anxieties

In this episode of Rising Anxieties, Mariann Sullivan dives into the meat industry’s desperate attempts to declare veganism “dead” while simultaneously scrambling to rebrand their unsustainable practices. With her signature blend of skepticism and hope, Mariann unpacks Jessica Scott-Reid’s insightful Sentient Media article that reveals how Big Animal Ag’s obituaries for veganism conveniently ignore their own $300 billion industry’s massive lobbying power and disinformation campaigns. Meanwhile, industry publications betray their anxiety as they awkwardly redefine “sustainability” to include profits and reluctantly embrace welfare reforms they once fought tooth and nail. The episode exposes the meat industry’s transparent panic while celebrating the slow but steady progress toward a more compassionate food system.

This episode explores:

• How the meat industry’s premature celebration of veganism’s “death” reveals their fear of the plant-based movement’s long-term potential
• The telling shift in industry rhetoric from “meat is necessary” to the weaker “meat can fit into a healthy diet”
• Ohio’s surprising new restrictions on gestation crates and what this industry concession means for animal advocacy
• The meat industry’s desperate attempt to co-opt “sustainability” by redefining it to include profitability 
• Why even the industry has to admit that the growing market share of cage-free eggs (now at 40%) signals a significant consumer shift

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