‘Meatless Mondays’ at Government Agencies? Ernst Says ‘No Way’

WASHINGTON – During “Meat on the Table Month,” U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), a champion for Iowa farmers and livestock producers who was born and raised on a rural Iowa family farm, is pushing back against the Left’s “War on Meat” and “Meatless Mondays” with new legislation. The TASTEE Act – or the Telling Agencies to Stop Tweaking What Employees Eat Act of 2021 – would prohibit federal agencies from establishing policies that ban serving meat for employees.

 

In 2012, the Obama-Biden Department of Agriculture (USDA) infamously sent out an agency newsletter that would serve as a catalyst for instituting the “Meatless Monday” initiative at USDA. Ernst’s TASTEE Act, which she is introducing with Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kan.), would make sure federal agencies can’t ban meat and other agriculture products in government dining halls at the expense of Iowa’s and America’s hardworking farmers and producers.

 

“Growing up on our rural family farm in Southwest Iowa, the work was tough—and not always pretty—but my family took extraordinary pride in what we did and the hogs and crops we raised, as do so many Iowa families, farmers, and ranchers. So, when I hear calls from the liberal Left—everyone from out-of-touch politicians to Hollywood elites—encouraging people to ban meat and the quality agriculture products we produce here in Iowa, it makes me sizzle. Our federal agencies shouldn’t be encouraging people to ban agricultural products at the expense of America’s hardworking farmers and producers. Congress needs to make its intention known that we should get ‘Meatless Mondays’ and other types of activist bans against agricultural products out of our government dining halls,” said Senator Joni Ernst.

 

“The last thing Americans need is big government stepping in and telling them what they are allowed to eat,” said Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. “The Biden Administration should not have the right to make radical political statements at the expense of federal employees’ dietary options and America’s hardworking farmers and producers. I’m proud to join my colleagues in introducing this important legislation that prevents Meatless Mondays and other types of discrimination against agricultural products from taking place in government dining halls.”

 

Earlier this year, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed a proclamation declaring April as Meat on the Table Month in support of Iowa farmers, ranchers and livestock producers.