The Peculiar Truth about the Vegan Cattleman

• March 1996: The English Minister of Health appeared before Parliament to warn that a new phenomenon called mad cow disease was a genuine threat to the nation.

• One American had testified before English courts about cattle-raising techniques that could have led to e-coli and mad cow disease. He was interviewed on England’s BBC radio, which broadcast his words across the globe.

• He wasn’t a scientist, but he was extremely knowledgeable about the field. He was a former fourth-generation Montana cattle rancher. His name was Howard Lyman.

• A lifetime of raising cattle exposed him to the sad truth about our unnatural food chain. After decades of unhealthy eating, Lyman made a life-changing decision.

• He became a vegan. And he encouraged others to do the same.

• Howard Lyman was born in Great Falls, Montana in 1938. He was raised on the family ranch, which consisted of dairy cows, pigs, cattle, and grain production. In the early 60s, he received a degree in agriculture from Montana State University, and then he spent a few years in the US Army. For the next 20 years after that, he continued his family’s business on his Montana ranch.

• 1979: Doctors discovered a cancerous tumor on Lyman’s spine. He attributed his illness to the rampant use of chemicals on his property that had decimated the soil and leeched into the cattle feed, therefore into the beef. After surviving his cancer battle, he turned to strictly organic farming. No more chemicals.

• 1990: A second health scare at age 52 brought Lyman to another crossroads. All those years of meat-eating played havoc on his health. He was also feeling guilty for contributing to the unhealthy food supply chain. That was when he went vegan, and his health turned around.

• Lyman once said, “In Montana, you’re probably safer getting caught stealing horses than admitting to being a vegetarian.”

• Regardless, he advocated for a no-meat lifestyle. He served three years as president of the International Vegetarian Union and went on speaking engagements.

• April 1996: Just weeks after Lyman’s BBC radio appearances, he was invited to appear on Oprah Winfrey’s daytime talk show. The topic was food safety in the US. The guests included a representative of the beef industry and Howard Lyman.

• At one point, Lyman explained that some cattle were being fed meat - effectively a kind of cannibalism. Upon hearing that, Winfrey cringed and said she’d never eat another hamburger again.

• Oprah Winfrey was so influential that her statement created ripple effects.

• Cattle prices that year were already declining from a number of factors - oversupply, drought, mad cow disease. But after that single Oprah Winfrey sentence, beef prices nosedived. It became known as the Oprah crash.

• Lawsuits followed against Lyman, Winfrey, and her production company. Cattle barons claimed her statement caused them millions of dollars in losses. Oprah tried to assuage the beef industry by permitting any representative free time on her show to state whatever they pleased with no fact checking. They declined.

• A rancher in Amarillo, Texas sued Oprah and Lyman and stacked the jury with local citizens. Even so, with the First Amendment on their side, as well as the facts about our food processing industries, Oprah and Lyman won.

• Howard Lyman went on to lecture around the world, became an animal rights advocate, and wrote books, including Mad Cowboy. As of this writing, he is still alive in his mid-80s and still promotes the vegetarian lifestyle.