People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is placing a new billboard in Des Moines, Iowa, encouraging people to eat tofu.
They say soybean farmers want people to go vegan and support the growers through a trade dispute with China. However, the Iowa Soybean Growers Association is quick to point out that it isn’t asking consumers to give up meat.
An Iowa Soybean Association spokesman says the billboard is “misleading and disingenuous,” and that “PETA doesn’t speak for Iowa or U.S. soybean growers.” PETA’s new billboard will say “America’s Soybean Farmers Want You… to go Vegan! Tofu: Born in China but raised in the USA.”
The group chose Des Moines because Iowa is the nation’s second-largest soybean grower. “It’s our civic duty, in the face of a trade war, to choose healthy, tasty, and downright patriotic dishes like veggie burgers and soy-based hot dogs,” says PETA president Ingrid Newkirk. However, the Iowa Soybean Association says capitalizing on a trade dispute to further its anti-meat agenda is in poor taste, calling it “a new low for PETA.”
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.