The rich must eat less meat | Scientists say rich countries need to eat a lot less meat. Will the environmental movement finally listen?

22 comments

1. The first part of this is great, but the environmental movement has frequently pushed eating less meat. What is this author talking about?

2. the question is how?

3. The obesity epidemic has its roots in the 1950s, which was the birth of modern convenience foods, both pre-made meals in the grocery store manufactured by corporations and fast food outside the home. Since that time, doctors have been telling people they need to change their diets. Every decade that passes, convenience foods represent a greater percentage of the wealthy world’s diet. The obesity rate climbed in lockstep with the increased consumption of convenience foods, as did all of the diseases related to obesity — heart disease, type 2 diabetes, etc.

   Having participated in the obesity discussion for years, the argument is largely the same as it is with climate change — companies are responsible for selling the food, but consumers aren’t responsible for buying it. *They* have to fix the food because *we* can’t be expected to give it up.

   When people aren’t willing to change their diets to save their own lives, and rationalize endlessly why they’re not responsible for something as individual as the food they eat, people will never change their diets to save the planet.

4. Environmentalist will listen. But unfortunately the majority of humanity is on self destruct.

5. [deleted]

6. I don’t get the title?

   The environmental movement IS listening… I’ve seen a LOT of articles from “the movement” telling us to eat less meat.

   It’s not the “environmental movement” that needs to listen, it’s all the rest of us eating a lot of meat.

   It’s a tough challenge. I saw a tiktok video that showed an example of the problem.

   A girl took her dad to In N Out burger for the first time. He LOVED it. Said it was the best fast food burger he ever had, and he was so excited.

   She said (as a joke) “that’s great, I didn’t expect a vegan burger to be this good!” He said “vegan?” and she lied and said “yeah, the whole restaurant is vegan.” Suddenly he refused to take another bite, he said he could suddenly “taste dirt” in it, and that it was gross, and demanded she immediately drive him to some other place with “real burgers.”

   That is what we are dealing with… people who insist on eating meat *no matter what.* You could literally give them a substitute that’s *better* than any meat they’ve ever had, and they’d demand to go back to real meat, even if it tasted worse.

   (I’m reading a lot into a tiktok video, but… the point stands, we ALL know those people who somehow take a lot of pride in eating meat and think it’s ‘wimpy’ or whatever to not eat meat.)

7. Mushrooms are delicious, and they grow freely in the wild. Some taste like chicken, some taste like beef, and some if you cook it too long, it tastes like smoked ham.

8. I think the conversation needs to be reframed. Maybe talk about the rising expenses of ranching, processing and the cost of skilled workers, along with the health risks (especially now with inspections and regulations pretty much gone), and general economic conditions affecting meat.

   Then talk about all of the options for other food. No one bats an eye when you talk about how good the local veggie supreme pizza is or that you whipped up a fancy baked mac and cheese for dinner. It isn’t an issue if someone has oatmeal or Cheerios for breakfast instead of bacon and eggs. Bean burritos are awesome. That sort of thing.

   I’m likely just rambling about stuff people already are doing.

9. My great grands-parents ate meat once a week, fish once a week

10. Why “Will the environmental movement finally listen” ?

    It’s all the other “movement”, but not the environmental movement.

11. Rich countries are full of poor people. I’d wager a lot more people in rich countries feel poorer every year.  The actual rich have to curtail their lifestyles instead of passing the buck on to the rest of us

12. At $6+ a pound for meat, it’s kinda going to happen because of economics

13. We will eat ze bugs

14. STOP EATING MAMMALS

15. Good for your health as well.

16. It’s because people are insulated from the death part. Show them how the meat was made triggers and emotional response that can change behavior.

    Most people are not able or capable to kill the meat they eat. (If you won’t do it, then you shouldn’t eat it) we need to eliminate the barriers to reality.

    And Support lab grown meat.

17. I don’t see this happening in the next 20 years. Plant meat and lab meat are the only way of bridging the generational gap here

18. What’d you think?

19. We can only hope.

20. Won’t be an issue in the Imperial States of America! We can’t afford beef, we just have beef … With the world.

21. Oh really and why is this? What a load of bollox

22. I suspect that changing human behavior like this is going to be next to impossible. This is a problem that will be most easily solved by technology. Low carbon, mass produced proteins through processes like lab-grown tissue, in-vitro meat, or precision fermentation are our best shot.

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