Weaponizing Ticks: Academics Propose Meat Allergy to Fight Climate Change
Bonner Russell Cohen | Oct 05, 2025
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CDC via AP, File
Unnerved by the Trump administration’s systematic rollback of regulations curtailing greenhouse-gas emissions from automobiles, power plants, and household appliances, two enterprising academics have hit on a novel idea to save the planet from manmade climate change: deliberately infect people with a tick-borne, potentially life-threatening allergy to red meat.
Climate activists and Biden administration regulators targeted the agricultural sector for decarbonization by, for example, pushing to replace diesel-fueled farm equipment like tractors and combines with electric-powered models. But enlisting genetically engineered ticks to curb the consumption of steaks, hamburgers, and pork loins would take the fight to an entirely new level.
Two researchers from Western Michigan University have proposed just that in a paper ominously titled “Beneficial Bloodsucking.” Published by the journal Bioethics in July, the paper argues that intentionally spreading alpha-gal syndrome (AGS) could be ethically defensible, and perhaps even necessary, because it reduces animal suffering and combats climate change. As the authors, Parker Crutchfield and Blake Hereth, put it:
https://townhall.com/columnists/bonner-russell-cohen/2025/10/05/fight-climate-change-by-infecting-people-with-tick-borne-allergies-to-red-meat-new-study-recommends-n2664319#google_vignette
