John Gummer, Baron Deben

John Selwyn Gummer, Baron Deben, born November 26, 1939, is a British Conservative politician recognized for environmental advocacy and for his controversial handling of the mad cow disease crisis. He served as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 1989 to 1993 under Margaret Thatcher and John Major, and in May 1990, at the height of the bovine spongiform encephalopathy scare, he tried to demonstrate the safety of British beef by eating a hamburger in front of press cameras, though his four year old daughter declined to eat one; the disease eventually claimed 178 British lives. He went on to serve as Secretary of State for the Environment from 1993 to 1997, introducing the Environment Act 1995 and the landfill tax, and later chaired the Climate Change Committee from 2012 to 2023.