Disclaimer: This is a re-worked version of HEATED’s 2021 essay: “Against meatposting.” Its message is directed only at people who care about climate change. If that’s not you, move along—this essay is not for you. In fact, none of our newsletters are. Ta-ta!

Industrialized animal agriculture is one of the largest sources of water contamination in the country. It is a massive contributor to drought in the West; the number one reason for Brazilian Amazon deforestation; and responsible for up to 18 percent of global carbon pollution. The meat industry has been a huge source of suffering and death for workers, particularly during the pandemic. If meat and dairy consumption continue apace, there could be an 80 percent spike in global agricultural greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050.

This is why I get annoyed when I see purportedly environmentally-concerned people meatposting. Meatposting, a word I made up in 2021, refers to the practice of posting pictures of meat on social media with captions that aggressively glorify its consumption.

A meatpost is not a simple photo of a meal that includes meat. It’s a picture of industrially-produced meat that associates its unhinged consumption with patriotism and/or moral superiority.

A meatpost is a picture of a grill top covered in Oscar Meyer hot dogs on the 4th of July with the caption: “HELL YEAH AMERICA!!” It’s a picture of two dozen JBS-produced hamburgers with the title: “ALL THE MEAT!!”

Flaunting your industrialized meat consumption online is akin to flaunting your gas-guzzling truck or gas-leaking stove. For someone who rejects climate science and/or wants to troll environmentalists, it makes total sense.

For everyone else, however, meatposting is deeply weird and cringey. It’s also harmful to the causes about which they claim to care.

Meatposting is free PR for a high-polluting industry

To be clear, my annoyance with meatposting is not about the fact that individuals choose to eat meat, nor is it with meat as an entire category. We live in a society that makes it very difficult to live a totally climate-friendly life, and no one should be shamed for what they choose to fuel their body with.

My annoyance with meatposting is about the fact that it provides an extremely valuable marketing service for one of the most climate-polluting industries in America—one that is also working tirelessly to prevent regulations to rein in that pollution. And it provides that marketing service for free.

The fact is, Big Meat is looking more and more like Big Oil every day. Large producers are getting sued over false sustainability marketing. They’re spending millions to influence academic research that downplays the industry’s pollution. And they’re pressuring major scientific bodies to censor themselves about Big Beef’s methane emissions.

But while Big Oil has to spend millions every year on sophisticated PR campaigns to distract the public from their climate misdeeds, the meat industry doesn’t have to do as much—because meatposters are doing it for free. And unlike the fossil fuel industry, the meat industry gets social media love from all over the political spectrum: not just conservatives and climate deniers.

To continue their hyper-polluting practices, Big Meat needs social license to operate in the same manner as Big Oil. But climate-concerned people often forget this, because meat culture is powerful. In America, we’re taught from a young age that the coolest thing in the world is to be a big man with a big car who eats big meat. It’s part of our deeply embedded culture of petromasculinity. It’s why people still get weirdly furious when you suggest eating carrot hot dogs on the Fourth of July.

So I have great empathy for meatposters. In fact, I used to be one myself. If you scroll back on my Instagram far enough, you’ll find a treasure trove of bleeding steaks, tender chops, and glistening loins. And it made sense that I wanted to share them: they were meals I made as acts of care for those I loved.

But eventually, as my climate reporting career went on, I started to feel uneasy about actively encouraging meat-eating from an environmental perspective. And I learned that changing behavioral norms through social signaling is just as important to mitigating climate change as the energy transition.

I stopped meatposting as a new act of care for those I love—and as an act of defiance against the powerful industry it benefits. If you’re concerned about the climate crisis, I encourage you to consider doing the same.

Past HEATED meat coverage:

• The original “against meatposting” essay

• Prepare for meat war

• How Big Beef muzzled methane research

• Don’t fall for “climate-friendly” beef

• Big Meat is lying about sustainability. These media outlets are helping.

• Is meat really "essential," though?

Catch of the Day: It’s been far too long since we featured a picture of our original Catch, the O.G. HEATED pet mascot and namesake of this section: Fish.

In this photo, Fish is modeling what we hope everyone is able to do on this July 4 holiday: Have some time outside to enjoy the sun.

Want to see your furry (or non-furry!) friend in HEATED? It might take a little while, but we WILL get to yours eventually! Just send a picture and some words to catchoftheday@heated.world.