Manny Rutinel: 8 Vegan Conventions & Suing Meat Corporations ‘For All They’re Worth’
Looks like Manny Rutinel’s vegan activism goes much deeper than previously thought.
While he pretends he’s been anti-vegan for the last “several years”, his top participation at 8 vegan conferences begs to differ.
His last panel discussion? Late 2024, just a few months before the launch of his campaign.
Read more below.
Washington Free Beacon
Ethan Barton
October 1, 2026
Colorado Democrat Manny Rutinel, a congressional nominee running in a swing district heavily reliant on ranching, once boasted that his “entire” job working for a far-left environmental group was to “take on large meat corporations and sue them for all they’re worth.”
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The student convention was just one of Rutinel’s eight speaking engagements at conferences and events between 2022 and 2024 organized by radical vegan and animal rights activist groups that aim to stop the human consumption of animals and give them the same legal rights as humans. His more recent appearances raise questions about his July claim—in response to Reddit posts unearthed by the Colorado Sun in which he voiced support for giving animals the same legal rights as people—that he hasn’t “been a vegan for several years.”
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But his radical animal activism continued until at least October 2024, just a few months before his 30th birthday and the launch of his congressional campaign. In fact, his talk at the student convention was one of two that month. At the second, also hosted by Animal Legal Defense Fund, which declined to comment, he joined a panel titled “Navigating Politics to Protect Animals,” which aimed to provide “an overview of the ways animal advocates can engage with politics and public policy,” the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Throughout his conference appearances, Rutinel was routinely introduced as the founder and CEO of Climate Refarm and pushed his firm’s mission to incentivize institutions like hospitals and schools to shift away from offering animal-based products. He complained that “meats produce a lot of emissions” and suggested those institutions introduce “a meatless Monday program” to drive down that pollution. He also said “we’re taking up huge amounts of land just for livestock,” meaning “that land can’t grow forests that could otherwise be sequestering carbon at immense rates.”
Read more here.
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