Meat: Is it really so bad?

According to this study, it is worse than bad: the authors claim that the meat industry is the single biggest cause of greenhouse gases, and therefore global warming. It doesn’t get much worse than that. It makes the meat industry the modern equivalent of Typhoid Mary, squared.

Keep in mind that the study has not yet been peer-reviewed, and normally I would never cite a non-peer-reviewed study. However, the authors are respected scientists, they have the backing of some other respected scientists – and times are desperate.

As has become cliché, a crisis presents both danger and opportunity. The danger to human life and civilisation from global warming is now very well known and acknowledged in the scientific community, and of course the opportunity is the ‘green’ economy. In a green economy, there is no such thing as waste; everything is ‘food’ for something else, which is the way nature works. Going green would return us to working in harmony with nature, instead of constantly trying to defeat her…a battle we are rapidly losing.

The “long shadow” of the meat industry results in massive amounts of land being cleared and rapidly degraded, huge methane emissions, lots of CO2-emitting transportation and refrigeration, and of course is much less efficient than people eating plants directly.

If people come to realise that we are indeed in a crisis, then it is possible that they would eat less meat, something scientists agree would greatly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. It would help if we overweight Canadians and Americans would lead the way, as people in rapidly developing countries are consuming more meat as quickly as they can afford to do so.

However…Gandhi once said that if you could get your appetite under control, you could control anything. And this from a man who was celibate. Meat may be bad for the planet, but it tastes good to most people and has an extremely strong psychological hold for many reasons, from being comfort food to being what the wealthy eat and therefore a sign of moving up in the world. In addition, it offers concentrated calories and a live cow is like food in the freezer for difficult times.

And, of course, the meat industry is by far the most heavily subsidized.

Food Subsidy Pyramid

So, not only is excess meat bad for your immediate health, and deadly to the planet – it’s also a socialist enterprise. Meat and dairy farmers are tractor-driving welfare kings.

The easiest way to cut meat consumption and taxes would be to simply end farm subsidies. The cost of a burger would increase substantially, of course, but that would be closer to the true market cost. (It still excludes costs due to poor farming practices, such as land degradation, greenhouse gas emissions, and pollution, but would be a lot closer to reality.)

It’s an interesting conundrum, because farmers are typically among the most ‘conservative’ of voters, yet consistently vote for welfare for themselves. This hypocrisy needs to be exposed for farming to become more sustainable.

If animal rights activists and environmentalists had any sense, they would be calling for an end to farm subsidies.

UPDATE: I am pleased to announce that this post has been accepted for publication in a Blog Carnival hosted by The Viewspaper: The Voice of Youth.

UPDATE 2: A second Blog Carnival will be publishing this article: All Things Eco Blog.