Food personality Eddie Huang has stopped eating meat because of its relationship to fires currently ravaging the Amazon rainforest, he said Friday.
The famed New York City-based chef, restaurateur and author said on social media that he has given up both meat and dairy due to environmental reasons after watching videos of the Amazon burning.
“Im going to go vegan because it takes 20 times less land to feed a vegan than a meat eater and over 90% of the land cleared in the amazon rainforest since 1970 is used for grazing livestock, but if all of us just stopped eating BEEF it would solve huge problems. Eat fish, eat chicken, eat pork until the next crisis but if all u can do now is quit beef, please do it,” Mr. Huang, 37, said on Instagram.
“Ive eaten my last bite of meat,” he added. “I wish I had planned this better and ate my mom’s ox tail soup but [expletive] it. There really isnt time to waste. Some things have to start today.”
More than 37,000 fellow Instagram users have since “liked” the post, which Mr. Huang concluded by encouraging his social media followers to consider veganism as well.
“Take a moment, think about it, and reexamine your relationship with food because it’ll make the Earth and ourselves very very sick if we keep abusing it,” he wrote.
Ongoing fires have destroyed huge swaths of the planet’s largest rainforest this week at the fastest rate since 2003, raising concerns across the globe and propelling the topic toward the top of the list of pressing issues expected to be discussed during the Group of Seven meeting of world leaders this weekend.
The son of a fellow restauranteur, Mr. Huang is best known for hosting a travel and food program on Viceland, “Huang’s World,” in addition to authoring an autobiography, “Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir,” that was later adapted into a comedy series aired by ABC. Its sixth season is set to premiere next month.
According to the menu posted on its website, Mr. Huang’s New York City eatery Baohaus boasts that it uses only “Heritage Breed Berkshire All-Natural Pork Belly” and “All-Natural Chicken Breast” for its pork and chicken entrees respectively.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.