Affluent countries typically consume significantly more costly food products than less affluent countries. This statement almost seems like a truism. However, this seemingly obvious fact has huge implications.
The production and consumption of meat in the Western world is incredibly prevalent because of its high demand. Because much of the West is very wealthy in comparison to the rest of the world, its citizens can enjoy many luxuries, including expensive foods. Animal products are significantly more costly than their plant counterparts in almost every way. Raising livestock requires significantly more water, arable land, and ironically enough, food. Most of the corn and soy production in the United States does not directly go to American consumers but is used for feed for livestock. Because of this, large-scale livestock production is incredibly expensive.
In addition to consumers paying the price at the grocery store, it is of course very expensive ecologically. Factory farming is the single largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, larger than all forms of transportation combined. In addition, it contributes to air and water pollution. To make matters worse, there is a growing amount of scientific evidence to suggest diets consisting largely of animal products are detrimental to health and contribute to the likelihood of chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and various cancers. Of course, a conversation meat production in the United States isn't complete without the few but loud voices of animal rights activists, who frequently decry the inhumane practices involved in factory farming.
Considering all of these facts, still only about 3 percent of the American population subscribes to a largely plant-based diet. Why is this? Well, for one, eating meat, makes a lot of sense evolutionarily. The ability for humans to cook and eat animal flesh was hugely important in ensuring the development of large brains. It is not surprising, then that people simply enjoy the taste of meat; they are willing to pay the money for something that tastes good, understandably. Most meat-eaters are even familiar with the adverse ethical, environmental, and health effects of consuming large quantities of animal products. As oversimplified as it sounds, it is largely a matter of humans' primal sense of taste that compels many in the West to consume large quantities of meat, and of course, they can afford to do so monetarily.
For those who are particularly concerned with the issues associated with eating meat, there have been a number of proposals over the years to combat these problems. Perhaps the most extreme, poorly received, and generally bad idea is to simply raise the price of animal products artificially. In recent years, there has been an uptick in interest regarding "green meat," or supposedly sustainably raised and ethically slaughtered meat products. Of course these are not as environmentally-friendly or "ethical" as not consuming meat at all, but in addition, these options are incredibly expensive and not nearly as readily available as their factory-farmed counterparts. Hopefully there is another, better option. Perhaps this option will come from the lab.
Many scientists have begun developing technologies that would be able to take a few cells from an animal and culture them to grow a piece of meat. As of right now, this process is in its very early stages, but already bioengineers have been able to grow leather and even hamburgers. These processes are very expensive now, but perhaps in the future, they might make a lot of sense economically. In Western society, only parts of the animals are typically desirable for consumption. This results in a lot of wasted time and resources, trying to grow an animal to adulthood only to slaughter it and use only a portion. Synthetic meat would allow people to make exactly as much as they would need with significantly fewer resources. This is incredibly speculative, and there will likely be much more research on this topic in the years to come. Still, this is an exciting prospect to resolve some of the issues surrounding meat production in Western society while still satisfying human's taste for other animals.
The link below contains some interesting information about research and production of synthetic meats.
<http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/aug/05/synthetic-meat-burger-stem-cells>
No comments:
Post a Comment