The Lancet: We need to talk about meat

[demmiblue]

Humans and the livestock they consume is a tale that impacts lives in a deep and meaningful sense. Human history is interwoven with production of meat for consumption, and its availability and nutritional value as a source of protein has played a major part in diet as far back as we can imagine, shaping regional identities and global movements. The emotionally charged debate over the ethical suitability of meat consumption may never reach a conclusion, but it is only comparatively recently that the climate impact of livestock rearing, and the nutritional and health issues caused by meat have become a pressing concern.

Achieving a healthy diet from a sustainable source is a struggle new enough to countries with an abundance of food that it has proven difficult to enact meaningful change. Government efforts to curb consumption and thus curb weight gain in high-income countries are yet to display a meaningful effect, and most of these efforts are focused on sugar or fat. Similarly, the global ecological sustainability of farming habits has not been a major topic of conversation until the last few decades. It's only now that we're beginning to have a conversation about the role of meat in both of these debates, and the evidence suggests a reckoning with our habits is long overdue.

Meat production doesn't just affect the ecosystem by production of gases, and studies now question the system of production's direct effect on global freshwater use, change in land use, and ocean acidification. A recent paper in Science claims that even the lowest-impact meat causes “much more” environmental impact than the least sustainable forms of plant and vegetable production. Population pressures, with global population predicted to increase by a third between 2010 and 2050, will push us past these breaking points.

...

So what is a healthy amount of red or processed meat? It's looking increasingly like the answer, for both the planet and the individual, is very little. Saying this is one thing. Getting the world to a place where we have the ability to balance the desire to eat whatever we want with our need to preserve the ecosystem we rely on to sustain ourselves is quite another. The conversation has to start soon.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)32971-4/fulltext

[MLAA]

1. The healthy amount is zero for people, the planet and certainly the animals 🤗

[JudyM]

2. This needs far more press coverage. Glad to see it in the Lancet.

Good post, demmiblue!

[appalachiablue]

3. Meat and Also Dairy.

K & R

[BigmanPigman]

4. Labs are now producing "meat" as well as plants.

I wonder if scientists are studying how these types of "meats" will effect the environment. I imagine that in 100 years that most of the "meat" consumed in the richer countries will be produced in labs and it will become the norm.