Eating meat is killing the planet. Good luck getting Americans to slow down.
MASCULINITY / MEDIA
Quick note: I’m out of town this week, and like most of you, I’ve just been horrified and outraged by the latest mass shooting in Texas and Buffalo, New York. I’ll have more thoughts on this in the coming weeks, but need some time to process.
I don’t want to burst anyone’s Memorial Day bubble here (at least in the States), but we might want to rethink our cookouts.
I can already hear the groans…I know, I know. I love a good barbecue as much as anyone else. Burgers, steaks, brats, you name it. I’m in. I get it. But, we’re faced with a serious choice ahead of us: continue to eat meat the way we are, or find a new planet to live on.
‘Don’t be so dramatic,’ I can hear some of you say. Well, it’s not just me.
Researchers from the University of Bonn in Germany last month published a study looking into meat and sustainability, for inclusion in this year’s Annual Review of Resource Economics journal. The study found that if the world continues to increase its meat production and consumption based on current trends it “would likely lead to the collapse of some global ecosystem functions on which humanity crucially depends.”
You can download and read a pdf of the full study here.
Particularly, this study calls on rich countries, like the U.S. and those in the European Union, to drastically reduce its meat consumption. The reason? Low-income countries are ramping up their own meat production and consumption habits - and that spells trouble.
"If all humans consumed as much meat as Europeans or North Americans, we would certainly miss the international climate targets and many ecosystems would collapse," study author Prof. Dr. Matin Qaim told Phys.org.
This study outlines essentially two prongs here: First, for poorer countries, there needs to be technological advancements to go along with increased meat production. So, as people in developing nations produce more meat, they can do so in a sustainable way.
But here’s the harder part: We also need people in rich countries to make some serious behavioral changes to reduce our overall meat consumption. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, nearly 144 pounds of meat was available for every person in the U.S. in 2017.
I just went to the doctor last week…and I weigh 144.5 pounds. The average American eats one ‘me’ every year in meat. That’s a lot of burgers.
Obviously, there are challenges to changing habits here in the States. Freedom is such a loaded word here that any time you suggest doing anything that even suggests restricting behavior, you’re going to face backlash.
We’re a nation of Ron Swansons.
“The whole point of this country is if you want to eat garbage, balloon up to 600 pounds and die of a heart attack at 43, you can. You are free to do so. To me, that’s beautiful.”
Ron Swanson, Parks & Recreation
Now, the study does suggest some potential solutions, like educational campaigns, revised dietary guidelines, or even a tax on animal-food products. But I am skeptical that you’ll ever get “red-blooded” Americans to truly give up their “meat n’ potatoes.” We couldn't even get people to wear a mask during a global pandemic. There’s just too much machismo in American culture, and meat has been tied into it.
That same toxic masculinity permeates American culture in everything from guns to pickup trucks - and of course, in our meat advertising.
Good God, all the fossil fuels in this commercial…
And then of course, there’s this gem from 2007:
So, what’s next? Do we all need to become vegetarian, or even vegan? According to the study, actually no.
“Low and moderate meat consumption levels are compatible with the climate targets and broader sustainable development, even for 10 billion people (Muller et al. 2017, Willett et al. 2019). In low-income countries, increases in the consumption of meat and other animal-sourced foods could help reduce nutritional deficiencies and promote human health, especially among vulnerable groups such as children, adolescents, and pregnant and lactating women.”
All we have to do is reduce our meat consumption, making it more of a treat than the usual entree. According to another study out this year, researchers found that the right strategy for targeting meat consumption depends on how motivated someone already is in moving to a plant-based diet.
For example, those who haven’t really thought about changing their diet might be encouraged to eat less meat if there were high taxes on those products, or if less meat was produced. “Meat Free Mondays” is an example of one successful idea that’s been tried at schools. But, the study says we’re also going to need some clever marketing (likely to counteract all those burger ads).
“For meat alternatives to be successful on the market, it will be crucial that consumers no longer see those products as inferior substitutes but stand-alone products. Therefore, one of the most important challenges in product development will be to create alternatives that are not only tasty but also offer a nutritional value equivalent to meat.”
And we’ve got a long-standing image problem to contend with, as this “tofu” ad from 2006 shows:
So, do yourself a favor this weekend. Swap your burgers for something a little healthier - for you and the planet.
Rose / Thorn / Bud
Rose (the good)
Nevada will have a ballot question this November asking to move to a ranked-choice voting system and open primary! moving to a ranked-choice voting system! You can read more about the proposed changes from The Nevada Independent.
It’ll be interesting to see how this all jives with state Democrats pushing to become the first in the nation primary.
Thorn (the bad)
I hesitate to give Donald Trump any oxygen, but I have to share this snippet from a new podcast, Will Be Wild, which looks at the lead up to the January 6 insurrection attempt.
HOST: The president wasn’t calling about the alarming intelligence brief…He had an idea, something he wanted to do along the southern border, in addition to building the wall: he wanted to dig a moat.
GUEST: ‘Quite literally, to dig a moat so that illegal immigrants would fall into the moat and then have to climb up through the dirt, and then above the wall.’
HOST: A moat. 18 feet deep, as deep as the wall was high.
I always knew Trump was cruel, but this is Bond villain territory.
Bud (what I’m looking ahead to)
Peace on the moon?
I came across this story and hadn’t heard of the Artemis Accords, but NASA just announced it added its 19th country to the agreement: Colombia! According to space.com, “the Artemis Accords outline peaceful and responsible exploration of the moon and beyond.”
We’ll see about all of that.
Weekly Recommendation
I mentioned it earlier, but Will Be Wild is a fascinating podcast that looks into the leadup of the January 6 insurrection. It’s reported and hosted by Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz, veterans behind the successful Trump, Inc. podcast. The show looks at many of the people behind the events, and how U.S. democracy will be forever affected.
Thank You!
Thanks for reading. Send ideas, tips, thoughts to higherthinking@substack.com. Follow me on twitter @imnoahglick. And if you want to support this work, feel free to venmo or paypal me a couple bucks to keep the coffee flowing.
Podcast versions of this newsletter will be available in the coming weeks.
Be good to each other!
Cheers,
Noah