They have put processed meat up there near asbestos and tobacco as a cancer risk and they are putting out the message that red meat is possibly a cancer risk too. This is s a long slow advertising mind-changing education process that has been pushed over years and will continue to be pushed. The aim is to reduce meat consumption and livestock cultivation and lots of different arguments are likely to be used to achieve it over time.
Here is a good article by Joanna Blythman back in 2013 when a similar tale was being pushed
"I'll carry on eating bangers, says industry's biggest critic, who rubbishes claims that processed meats could kill us providing they are eaten in moderation
People have eaten bacon and sausages for centuries without ill effect
This is least reliable kind of scientific study - other factors could be involved
...
The Mediterranean diet is famously said to be the most healthy in the world, yet traditional cured meats are regularly eaten there. The Italians are renowned for their devotion to antipasti, including such delights as salami and Parma ham, but such a diet does them nothing but good, partly because it is accompanied by generous helpings of salad and olives.
The same is true of Spain, where jamon is an integral part of the national diet. In France, there is even a type of butcher’s shop devoted to selling nothing but processed meats, the much-loved charcuterie, while the Germans consume far more cured pork than we do in Britain.
A further serious effect of the report is that it has been widely interpreted as sweeping condemnation of all types of meat-eating. Warnings about the deadliness of sausages, burgers and bacon are more ammunition in a simplistic campaign against all rearing and consumption of livestock.
As one campaigner put it yesterday in response to the report: ‘This is what we are saying. Let’s lower the number of animals we are producing. We need to reduce the cattle culture in this country.’
But the wholesale abandonment of meat and a switch to vegetarianism would cause real damage to the nation’s health. For, whatever the antis might say, meat provides so many of the nutrients that are absolutely essential to our health. A slice of ham from a free-range pig is a great source of iron, B vitamins and high-quality proteins that repair the body’s tissues. Meat, even in processed form, is a far healthier, more lasting means of satisfying the appetite than carbohydrates such as pasta and bread.
A protein-laden breakfast of eggs, bacon and sausages provides you with many more life-sustaining nutrients than a typical breakfast cereal or a couple of slices of toast.
www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2289946/Ill-carry-eating-bangers-says-industrys-biggest-critic-Joanna-Blythman-claims-processed-meats-harmless-providing-eaten-moderation.html