What should you do if the product you’re selling has been scientifically identified as a possible cause of cancer in humans?

The Canadian meat industry’s answer, apparently, is to call on the federal government to defund the scientists. This attempt to put profit above human health is inexcusable, and the Trudeau government should act quickly to repudiate it.

Speaking recently at a Canadian Meat Council conference in Ottawa, Rory McAlpine, a senior vice president with Maple Leaf Foods, asked Health Minister Jane Philpott on behalf of his industry to consider pulling federal funding from the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer — retribution for that agency’s decision to list processed meats as a Group 1 carcinogen (the category that covers smoking and asbestos) and to list red meat in Group 2A as a “probable” cause of cancer in humans.

In a troubling response, Minister Philpott told the room full of meat industry executives that she would raise their suggestion with officials in her department. She may have been trying to be diplomatic, but if the federal health minister has any respect for science-based policy (and the World Health Organization itself) she won’t give any serious consideration to this request.

The IARC is a globally respected public health agency, and did not come to its conclusion lightly. Its conclusion that processed meats such as poultry, hot dogs, ham, bacon and sandwich meats cause colorectal cancer, and that red meats probably cause cancer, were not based on just one study. A working group of 22 scientific experts from 10 countries compiled and considered over 800 studies covering a 20-year timeframe before arriving at the carefully worded conclusions that they announced in October last year.

That ploy didn’t work for cigarette companies. It won’t work for the meat industry, either. That ploy didn’t work for cigarette companies. It won’t work for the meat industry, either.

It’s not difficult to imagine the Canadian meat industry’s motivations — and we don’t need to look that far back in time to see an all but identical situation. In the 1960s, Big Tobacco went to extraordinary lengths to hide and deny the science that linked its products to cancer.

That ploy didn’t work for cigarette companies. It won’t work for the meat industry, either.

Prime Minister Trudeau has pledged to renew Canada’s respect for scientific freedom and international cooperation after devastating cuts under Stephen Harper, and he now has an opportunity to make good on his promise by standing by the WHO and the IARC.

Further, it may behoove the PM and Minister Philpott to take this opportunity to show leadership in protecting Canadians’ health by encouraging the “three R’s” when it comes to our diets: reducing the amount of meat and animal products we consume, refining our diet to make the least harmful choices for animal welfare (such as switching to free-range eggs) and replacing animal products where possible with plant-based options.

The reasons to cut back on animal products are compelling. Undercover footage from factory farms consistently shows the abysmal conditions that the majority of the animals raised for food endure. Just imagine the suffering of a pregnant sow confined in a steel gestation crate so small that she cannot turn around for most of her life, or an egg-laying hen in a wire cage so small that she cannot spread her wings.

Animal agriculture’s contribution to climate change is irrefutable, accounting for nearly 15 per cent of human-induced global greenhouse gas emissions. Now, despite the Canadian meat industry’s futile efforts to discredit the IARC, we know that some types of meat can cause cancer.

Instead of working against science, companies such as Maple Leaf foods would be much wiser to take the long view and start diversifying. The rapidly growing plant-based protein market is expected to grow to more than $5 billion by 2020, and packaged meat companies have an opportunity to create animal-free alternatives to hot dogs, bacon and other processed meats. Given that more than 60 percent of millennials now consume plant-based meats, shareholders should be demanding this kind of forward-thinking.

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