A heated vegan debate was sparked on GB News this morning, as a meat-eater and a vegan discussed if meat food packaging should have a 'warning label' added to it.
Hosts Eamonn Holmes and Isabel Webster were joined by Senior Marketing Manager at PETA, Margarita Sachkova and Personal Trainer Reece Mander.
The calls have been made following the idea from Scientists at Durham University, after conducting a label experiment on a group of 1000 people.
The participants were shown pictures of hot meals tagged with a climate, health or pandemic warning, or no label. The meat-eaters chose a veggie option 7-10 per cent of the time.
Margarita Sachkova argued that it 'makes sense' to add labels to meat
GB News
Discussing the topic on World Vegan Day, Mander stated that "not all meat is the same" and asked "to label all meat under the same category, is it correct?"
Sachkova opposed Mander's view and claimed that it "makes sense" to add similar labels to meat, as people "can make very informed choices whether they are buying something that is potentially giving them risks to their health".
Eamonn fought back against Sachkova, stating "you're attacking the wrong people, aren't you really.
"You're killing an industry, the Irish beef industry for instance, and dairy industry is being killed the way it is in Holland as well because of protests from people like like yourselves."
Sachkova then argued: "The evidence that red meat, processed meat is linked to cancer is irrefutable. But this is the exact problem.
"Red meat that is not processed meat is burning our planet. But not all red meat. These are just facts. We want people to know the facts and then they make can make their own choice."
Mander then argued: "Just because you say it doesn't make it a fact."
Eamonn stepped in in favour of Sachkova, admitting: "I must admit, I I agree with Margarita on this one, Reese. I am shamefully a meat eater."
Reece Mander argued that it's 'not shameful' to eat meat
GB News
Mander interrupted, stating: "I don't think you should be shamefully eating meat."
Eamonn revealed: "I've actually gone and bought fruit today just because she's coming into the studio because I thought it would be too embarrassing."
He then asked Sachkova what message she would give for World Vegan Month, to which she said: "I would encourage everyone to be curious about it and to try vegan. And if you haven't had your breakfast yet, there have been just this research that show that has shown that having just one piece of bacon every day increases your risks of having bowel cancer by 19%.
"So if you can swap this bacon with something else, you'll do better for your health, you'll be animals and you'll be kinder to the series."
