‘Lettuce Has a Heartbeat:’ Farmer’s Rant Over Vegan Protest Steals Viral Limelight

Police move in on animal rights protesters who had blocked the intersections of Flinders and Swanston Street, in Melbourne, Australia, on April 8, 2019. Ellen Smith /AAP Image/Reuters

Vegan protesters are facing up to five years’ jail time and a public backlash, after they brought rush-hour traffic to a standstill and chained themselves to abattoirs across Australia in carefully orchestrated protests that caught plenty of media attention.

But it was an off-the-cuff Facebook rant by a grazier that caught the viral limelight, as he slammed the protesters as “bananas” and described a telephone conversation with a protester who told him “lettuce has a heartbeat.”