The podcast host Joe Rogan has been widely mocked for wrongly claiming a proposed Australian law tried to stop citizens from growing food, then realising, live on air, that it “might be fake”.
In a bizarre rant, the podcaster labelled Australian authorities “fucking creeps” and claimed they were trying to “smoke out” anti-vaxxers.
Here are the facts.
What did Joe Rogan say?
In an episode of Spotify’s Joe Rogan Experience that aired on 12 May, Rogan claimed to his 11 million listeners “someone”, “I think it was New South Wales”, attempted to pass a law preventing Australians from growing their own food.
“I read something briefly and didn’t get into the article,” Rogan began confidently. “But they were saying they were trying to pass a bill that would outlaw you growing your own food in Australia.”
“Oh my god,” his guest Bryan ‘Hotep Jesus’ Sharpe cried.
Seemingly mocking the Australian officials by speaking in a slow, dopey voice, Rogan continued: “They were saying, ‘Whoa, you could grow your own food. And what else? The disease was from your food. It infects the population, kills us off. Oh, we can’t have that.’”
Rogan said he didn’t know what the justification was for the law but he was “pretty sure” it had to do with agricultural contamination.
“You could justify it if you were a real piece of shit, you could say most pandemics come from agriculture … fucking creeps man, these fucking creeps, they got a good grip on people during the pandemic,” he lamented.
“That’s how you motherfucking smoke out an anti-vaxxer, you can’t even go to the grocery store any more and you can’t grow your own food.”
His producer, Jamie Vernon, then Googled the topic, which threw a spanner in the works of Rogan’s rant. “Nothing’s coming up,” he said. “The closest I can find is New Zealand.”
“Hold on,” Rogan replied, whipping out his own phone, to no avail. “It’s got to be a real thing … it seems too good to not be … damn it, it better not be fake.
“It might be fake.”
Where did the claim come from?
It appears Rogan got hooked in by a false claim that has been circulating on social media.
In a post on Facebook it was suggested Daniel Andrews (the premier of Victoria, not New South Wales), was passing a bill prohibiting people from growing their own food.
“The Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 has had its second reading in parliament,” the post read. “Biosecurity is stated as the reason for changes.”
After this, a YouTuber with more than 75m views tweeted “Australia is passing a bill that will prevent people from growing their own food. Totally normal.” The post was retweeted more than 12,000 times.
Reuters found six similar posts across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram echoing the claim.
Does the claim hold even a layer of truth?
In short, no.
Not only did Rogan get the state wrong, but the Victorian government told Guardian Australia the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill (2022) won’t prevent anyone from growing their own food.
“The Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 will help safeguard food security, food safety and access to export markets,” a spokesperson said.
The bill which has had a third reading in the Victorian Legislative Assembly, only prohibits the sale of “diseased plants” and “pest animals”.
Australia has legislation and regulations to ensure food is safe to eat, enforced by the federal, state and territory governments. They mostly relate to food labelling, commercial storing, handling and serving food and food recalls.
Food Standards Australia New Zealand has set the standards since the 90s. Perusing the Food Standards Code, there is one requirement under legislation for fruit and vegetables – that if they are sold in brine, oil or vinegar they must not have a pH greater than 4.6. Not relevant to home gardeners.
Why is Rogan so hung up about Australia?
Rogan has been widely criticised for making numerous disputed claims about the pandemic, lockdowns and Covid vaccinations on his program.
And he has a real bent about Australia’s approach to the virus.
In November, Rogan posted a satirical advertisement on Instagram that ran on the ABC’s Gruen Transfer program, with the caption: “Not only has Australia had the worst reaction to the pandemic with dystopian, police-state measures that are truly inconceivable to the rest of the civilised world, but they also have the absolute dumbest propaganda.”
Later, he added an edit to the post, acknowledging “apparently this is not a real ad. It’s from a satirical show”.
The following month, Rogan said he would not get vaccinated as he “had antibodies” and it “doesn’t make sense”. He has also suggested lockdowns “make things worse” as they can perpetuate the spread of Covid-19 because people are “trapped inside”.
Spotify has flagged it will add “content advisories” to all podcasts that discuss Covid-19.
