Mother Jones Predicts Wave of Meat Industry Propaganda

According to Mother Jones, Elanco president Jeff Simmons has been advocating the use of ractopamine—a growth drug banned in 160 countries that mimics stress hormones and causes animals to be more vulnerable to heat—as an innovative and efficient solution for increasing meat, egg, and dairy production by 60 percent. The issue, the publication says, is that Simmons also heads ENOUGH Movement, an organization that claims to be concerned with creating enough food for the world by 2050. Elanco is the “animal-health” arm of Eli Lilly, the pharmaceutical company that produces ractopamine, meaning he and his company stand to profit greatly from ractopamine’s useage. Advocating for the drug during ENOUGH Movement speaking engagements, Simmons claims ractopamine will lead to a “food-secure world” by 2050. Given these deceptive practices, Mother Jones warns that “we’re on the verge of a loud campaign by the meat industry, particularly its pharma sector, to portray its critics as a privileged fringe, untroubled by global hunger.”