Posted on 07/01/2026 10:05:55 AM PDT by DFG
Manny Rutinel has just won the Democratic primary in Colorado's 8th Congressional District, and that should raise red flags for the people he hopes to represent. Why? Well, Rutinel has a long history of radical vegan activism, and animal agriculture is a massive economic engine in the district Rutinel hopes to represent.
In fact, the 8th Congressional district is considered Colorado's agricultural capital. It is home to Weld County, the state's most agriculturally productive county, as well as some of the nation's biggest meat and dairy producers, the very companies Rutinel's vegan activism has targeted over the years. This includes JBS, the international meatpacking giant, which is headquartered in Greeley. This district is home to many cattle feedlots, including the Five Rivers operation in Kersey, one of the state's largest. There are numerous ranches in that district, and Leprino Foods operates a major mozzarella plant in Greeley. Aurora Organic runs a dairy there, and Morning Fresh Farms cultivates eggs in Platteville.
Cattle production is Colorado's leading agricultural commodity, too. Roughly 2.7 million head of cattle are being raised by families in every Colorado county, and more than half of the state's $7.1 billion in agricultural cash receipts are attributed to livestock.
Statewide, animal agriculture is a $47 billion industry that employs almost 200,000 people. That's a lot of money and a lot of jobs on the line, poised to be sacrificed for Rutinel's radical vegan activism.
This vegan activism is nothing new. Rutinel has been doing this since at least his undergraduate days in Florida, where he posed shirtless on campus, draped in a People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) banner, to protest beef production.
"One pound of beef equals 180 showers," read the sign Rutinel held.
That activism followed Rutinel to Yale Law, where he was quoted in a campus publication calling the animal agriculture industry 'horrific' and 'exploitative.'
"As it stands now, animal agriculture is a horrific, exploitive industry. It’s producing an incredible amount of harm, from chronic health conditions to pandemics, that affect farmers, laborers, animals, local communities, consumers, and people drinking water miles down the road," Rutinel said. "Perhaps more so than other projects focused only on carbon dioxide, this project touches on all those things. It touches on food sustainability and security because it takes so many resources to produce a unit of animal product and humans could have directly consumed those resources."
To encourage farmers to move away from animal agriculture, Rutinel supported a proposal that would use carbon-offset credits to pay farmers who transitioned to plant agriculture. That proposal, titled 'From Animals to Plants: Financing Farm Transitions Through Carbon Markets' said in part:
"From the methane emissions created by enteric digestion to livestock feed dominating the world’s agricultural lands, industrial animal agriculture is a leading and rapidly growing contributor to climate change, already responsible for more than 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
In recent years, carbon markets have emerged as a promising strategy to help governments and businesses limit greenhouse gas emissions and incentivize better practices. In conjunction with the carbon market, carbon offset programs enable companies to diminish their net contribution to greenhouse gases."
Prior to entering the state legislature, Rutinel also founded an organization that encouraged shifting away from the consumption of animal products by raising taxes on meat, dairy, and eggs. In 2021, Rutinel cited a report on climate change and told a legislative committee in Connecticut, "The globe must dramatically shift away from animal products and toward fruit, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and nuts."
Rutinel knows his veganism poses a problem for his campaign. During a Democratic primary debate, Rutinel pulled a page from the James Talarico playbook and claimed he's no longer a vegan.
"I'm not a vegan," Rutinel claimed. "I think that it's important for me to be able to enjoy the delicious that Colorado ranchers make."
When asked about his past statements on the animal agriculture industry, Rutinel said, "Farmers and ranchers are my friends. I've been honored to be supported by United Farm Workers, United Food and Commercial Workers, which represents the meat packers over at JBS in Greeley. I will always fight for our ranchers and our farmers."
Note that Rutinel doesn't disavow his prior statements.
"Radical far-left vegan activist Manny Rutinel wants to end animal agriculture, effectively ending the way of life for thousands of hardworking ranchers in Colorado. Manny Rutinel couldn't be further out of touch with Colorado's 8th Congressional district and he will be resoundingly rejected by voters this fall," said NRCC Spokesman Zach Bannon.
And now Rutinel has won the primary and will possibly represent Colorado's 8th Congressional district. Voters, many of whom are employed by the state's animal agriculture business, would do well to know what Rutinel's record really is, and that his radical vegan activism is a major threat to their jobs and the state's economy.
"The socialist takeover of the Democrat Party is no longer confined to deep-blue strongholds. The radicals are taking over battleground districts, putting must-win seats out of reach for Democrats and sinking their chances of flipping the House," said NRCC Spokesman Mike Marinella.
Guy is a lying nut. The Kalifornia plague has all but killed Colorado.
“From the methane emissions created by enteric digestion to livestock feed dominating the world’s agricultural lands, industrial animal agriculture is a leading and rapidly growing contributor to climate change, already responsible for more than 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions.” You’re an expert right Manny?
No one is forcing them to eat meat. Why don’t they eat their veggies and leave the rest of us alone?
A long time ago, I went to a ski resort in Colorado for a scientific conference. When it came time to order food, they served us wonderful meat (with Coors beer, of course), but vegetables were hard to come by.
Now Colorado is infected with veganism!
If I go to Colorado, I would like to have BOTH meat and vegetables! Colorado is the last place I would expect to encounter veganism!
Manny’s last name sounds like Root Canal.
Because they hate humans. It’s a religion. Humans are profane which means ANY domesticate animals should die. They also use the standard commie tactic of changing the definition of words that normal people use. PETA is a case in point; “ethical” treatment of animals means domestic animals should be extinct.
BEEF VS SHOWERS ??????????????????????????
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/epa-approves-new-fluorinated-pesticides-1806171
Trump Approves Toxic Cancer-Linked Forever Chemical Pesticides On Major Food Crops Never Before Used In America
New herbicides approved for major US crops amid health concerns and legal battles.
01 July 2026
The Trump administration's Environmental Protection Agency has cleared two fluorinated pesticides never before sprayed on American soil for use on the country's two biggest food crops, corn and soybeans.
The approvals of diflufenican and epyrifenacil were announced by the Center for Biological Diversity on 30 June 2026, alongside expanded food uses for a third fluorinated insecticide, bifenthrin, and the first US food registration of the plant regulator chlormequat.
Campaigners describe all of these as long-lasting compounds tied to serious health harms, a characterisation the EPA firmly rejects. The clearances landed five days after the Supreme Court sharply curtailed Americans' ability to sue pesticide makers over cancer warnings, sharpening a fight that has split the president's own base.
Two Novel Fluorinated Herbicides Cleared For America's Staple Crops
The EPA registered diflufenican and epyrifenacil for use on corn and soybeans, with epyrifenacil also approved for wheat. Both are new to the American market and had not been sprayed on any US crop before this decision.
Corn and soybeans together cover more than 70 million hectares of American farmland each year, so the reach of the approvals is vast. Both are herbicides used to kill weeds rather than insects, and each is expected to leave residues that linger well beyond a single growing season.
On the same day the agency broadened the use of bifenthrin, an older fluorinated insecticide, to coffee, kiwifruit, peas, kale and broccoli. It also approved the first US food use of chlormequat on wheat, barley and oats, a growth regulator already detected in the urine of roughly 90% of Americans and linked in studies to reduced fertility and reproductive toxicity.
The approvals arrived after Kyle Kunkler, a former lobbyist for the American Soybean Association, was installed as deputy assistant administrator for pesticides. The soybean association had lobbied in favour of both new herbicides through the public docket. They mark the third and fourth PFAS pesticide clearances under the current administration, following cyclobutrifluram and isocycloseram.
...
Regulators abroad have already drawn harder lines. Denmark has banned diflufenican over its contribution to groundwater contamination, and epyrifenacil has never been cleared for use in Europe.
On the cancer question, the EPA rates epyrifenacil as 'not likely to be carcinogenic' at low doses, yet the pesticide causes liver tumours in animal studies, and a diflufenican breakdown product shares a toxicity profile with aniline, a compound the agency itself classifies as a probable human carcinogen.
Supreme Court Ruling Narrows The Path To Sue Pesticide Makers
The timing has amplified the alarm. On 25 June 2026 the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in Monsanto Co. v. Durnell that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act preempts state failure-to-warn claims. Writing for the majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh held that state juries cannot force a pesticide label to carry warnings 'in addition to or different from' those the EPA approves.
Nathan Donley, environmental health science director at the Center for Biological Diversity, called the fresh approvals 'a national outrage' coming days after the court 'limited the American people's right to sue pesticide companies.' He argues the agency has approved hundreds of poisons it has itself linked to cancer. The EPA maintains its reviews follow gold-standard science and that the compounds are safer than the older chemicals they replace.
Good points. Thanks.
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