Guess who has become a cattle rancher? Mark Zuckerberg

Can you imagine Meta Inc owner Mark Zuckerberg raising and breeding cattle? Well, that’s just what he has started at his 1,400 acre Ko’olau ranch on Kauai island in Hawaii. His goal is to tap into the lucrative market for beef.

Zuckerberg took to his social media platform Instagram in January and announced, “Started raising cattle at Ko’olau Ranch on Kauai, and my goal is to create some of the highest quality beef in the world.” The breeds he has chosen for this pursuit are the wagyu and the Angus. They will be kept on a diet of macadamia meal and home-grown beer, no less.

“Each cow eats 5,000-10,000 pounds of food each year, so that’s a lot of acres of macadamia trees,” the billionaire said. “Of all my projects, this is the most delicious.”

Looked at another way, Meat is simply an anagram of Meta. So why not?

Predictably, Zuckerberg has come under fire from environmentalists for his “out-of-touch” and “outdated” project. Speaking with The Guardian newspaper, Mitch Jones, policy director at Food & Water Watch, a British legal and policy nonprofit, said, “Raising cattle on water-intensive macadamia nuts and beer is just a billionaire’s strange sideshow. We need real agriculture reform to address the inequities in our food system and the reality of a warming climate.”

“Proud of you, man,” quipped journalist and author Andrew Greenberg on rival social media outlet X. “You really fulfilled that dream of putting food in your mouth in the manner that causes the most climate change possible for a human being.”

Climate scientists say cattle rearing is a major contributor to deforestation, water pollution, and global warming. A fully grown cow can release up to 500 litres of methane a day, which accounts for about 3.7% of all greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

Methane causes about 85 times more warming than carbon dioxide over a span of 20 years.

Shalin Gala from animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals condemned Zuckerberg for being stuck in the “dark ages”.

Not that any of this criticism is likely to deter Zuckerberg. After all, he has been a lightning rod for criticism most of his working life.