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We’re on track to set a new record for global meat consumption

technologyreview.com

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Re: We’re on track to set a new record for global meat consumption

#31

Post by lambdaba »

Robotbeat wrote: post #12
kuratkull wrote: post #6

Not sure why the author doesn't mention the known (and gaining traction) solution: rotational grazing. It's a rather simple carbon-negative solution. You have a bunch of land, you divide it into paddocks, you rotate ruminants to fresh grass. The previous paddocks regenerate and bind carbon. Repeat. A large plot of land is able to bind carbon for decades. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=rotational+grazing+carbon+negative

I sincerely doubt this fully compensated for methane emissions.

We could fix that by feeding the cattle algae:

https://www.agweb.com/news/livestock/beef/feeding-cows-seawe...

Re: We’re on track to set a new record for global meat consumption

#32

Post by fmajid »

nobodyandproud wrote: post #22
deepnotderp wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No we don’t. We eat less than most Hunter gatherers did, even accounting for variability iirc

I don’t think we can generalize that, because it depends on where the hunter-gatherer lived. https://www.cnn.com/2017/07/05/health/hunter-gatherer-diet-t... It’s a three day sampling, but fruit and honey make-up a non-trivial portion of their caloric intake. Inuit diet, of course, was mostly fat and protein out of necessity

We only started eating vegetables 85,000 years ago. For the 2M years before that it was all meat diet:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-2-million-years-humans-ate...

Re: We’re on track to set a new record for global meat consumption

#33

Post by nicbou »

jschveibinz wrote: post #3

We eat way more than we used to, and there are more people doing it. Per capita meat consumption in the US (poultry, beef, pork) in 1960 was about 170 lbs per year. Now it’s closer to 220 lbs per person per year. Cheese consumption has almost tripled since 1970. https://www.nationalchickencouncil.org/about-the-industry/st... Let’s all be heroes: Eat less (including meat and cheese), buy less, save money, improve your…

Considering we could not get people to wear masks to curb far more immediate problems, I find it difficult to take the initiative.

Re: We’re on track to set a new record for global meat consumption

#34

Post by adriand »

Industrial agriculture is depleting the soil, abusing animals, polluting our water and significantly contributing to planet-destroying climate change. How about we start tackling the problem by ending subsidies and requiring meat producers to pay for what are currently treated as externalities. If meat eaters had to pay the real cost of their food, I suspect overall consumption would decrease far more than any campaign for behavioural changes.

Re: We’re on track to set a new record for global meat consumption

#35

Post by seanwilson »

Why not reduce government subsidies on meat and add tax based on the pollution generated? Existing meat alternatives that are cheap to produce and create less pollution would then have a fair chance to compete?

I can't see how meat alternatives are ever going to be able to compete otherwise. We already have a ton of good cow milk alternatives to choose from and people aren't rapidly switching to them so I don't expect e.g. lab meat to change much unless it was an order of magnitude cheaper.

Re: We’re on track to set a new record for global meat consumption

#37

Post by sigg3 »

ctoth wrote: post #23
pengaru wrote: post #21

The future can look pretty grim when you start considering how rapidly quality of life can shift upwards even for huge populations, and how many people on earth have nowhere to go on that scale but up up up. Population growth historically received a lot of attention, but at this point there's enough queued up people waiting to join the West's way of life it looks to me like that ship has sailed. China promptly overto…

> The future can look pretty grim when you start considering how rapidly quality of life can shift upwards even for huge populations, and how many people on earth have nowhere to go on that scale but up up up. The future looks grim. Because life is getting better. for lots of people? Take this anti-humanistic garbage elsewhere. We can solve problems and make a better world without having to decrease, or even slow the…

I think your assessment is more or less spot on, we've faced down civilizational threats before.

I want to add that there's a statistical trend to have less offspring once quality of life improves, as well.

That being said, civilizations have come and gone before. I believe we must not fall into "tech religion", and wait for magical solutions when we can and should address many things politically rather than technologically.

I am also happy we're reaching for the solar system, because a backup mankind seems prudent.

Re: We’re on track to set a new record for global meat consumption

#38

Post by nitrogen »

ctoth wrote: post #23
pengaru wrote: post #21

The future can look pretty grim when you start considering how rapidly quality of life can shift upwards even for huge populations, and how many people on earth have nowhere to go on that scale but up up up. Population growth historically received a lot of attention, but at this point there's enough queued up people waiting to join the West's way of life it looks to me like that ship has sailed. China promptly overto…

> The future can look pretty grim when you start considering how rapidly quality of life can shift upwards even for huge populations, and how many people on earth have nowhere to go on that scale but up up up. The future looks grim. Because life is getting better. for lots of people? Take this anti-humanistic garbage elsewhere. We can solve problems and make a better world without having to decrease, or even slow the…

I think at least some of this comes from the new environmental movement, which tends to be much more anti-human than pro-fixes.

It's just another way of pulling up the ladder after climbing it, the same as people like to accuse homeowners of doing when they don't want to be crowded out of their neighborhoods. You can even find both in the same neighborhood/person -- you'll be looked at funny if you don't have a Prius parked in front of your multi-million dollar house right next to a protected forest that only you can access because there is no train and no parking.

Re: We’re on track to set a new record for global meat consumption

#39

Post by pmastela »

jschveibinz wrote: post #3

We eat way more than we used to, and there are more people doing it. Per capita meat consumption in the US (poultry, beef, pork) in 1960 was about 170 lbs per year. Now it’s closer to 220 lbs per person per year. Cheese consumption has almost tripled since 1970. https://www.nationalchickencouncil.org/about-the-industry/st... Let’s all be heroes: Eat less (including meat and cheese), buy less, save money, improve your…

> Let’s all be heroes: Eat less (including meat and cheese), buy less, save money, improve your health, create less waste, drive less, walk more, save water and use less energy. And be a role model for the next generation.

Yes, let’s all be heroes but at the same time let’s acknowledge the fact that as long as the incentives of the system remain the same, the trend will continue. This rhetoric reminds me of the rhetoric around plastic consumption; the big producers of plastic push the message that it’s on all of us to reuse, recycle, and so on. Let’s instead capture the cost of the externalities in the actual prices of meat production and consumption — prices then should be higher and demand at that price point will be less. Let’s make it easier to be heroes by changing the system.

Re: We’re on track to set a new record for global meat consumption

#40

Post by qudat »

ctoth wrote: post #26
jschveibinz wrote: post #3

We eat way more than we used to, and there are more people doing it. Per capita meat consumption in the US (poultry, beef, pork) in 1960 was about 170 lbs per year. Now it’s closer to 220 lbs per person per year. Cheese consumption has almost tripled since 1970. https://www.nationalchickencouncil.org/about-the-industry/st... Let’s all be heroes: Eat less (including meat and cheese), buy less, save money, improve your…

This comment is a perfect example of a person shifting systemic problems onto individual consumers. If we just all do our one little part, it makes a better world, right? Except then you get situations like the great recycling crisis, where individual consumers do their part to recycle and then we "realize" that recycling has been a giant scam for decades.

What would the scam be behind eating less meat?
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