THE MEAT CRISIS

In the introduction to this important book, the editors sum up our situation by saying that we eat too much meat for our own good health, too much for the dwindling global resources of land and water, too much for the health of our planet's climate and environment and too much to enable the animals we eat to have decent lives before we devour them. Total meat consumption has risen from 44 million tonnes in 1950 to 240 million tonnes today; it is anticipated to rise further to 376 million tonnes by 2030 and 465 million tonnes by 2050. Already, more than a third of total grain consumption is fed to animals, including 50% of wheat and 90% of soya. This has come about through the intensification of the production in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) which now account for 40% of global meat production. Here the animals are fed a grain-based diet and put on weight far more quickly. A 500 lb calf can be grown to 1,350 lb in four months, while the same animal would take two years to reach 1,100 lb if fed on grass.

The projected rise in consumption can only mean a further intensification of already problematic production methods. Not only does the livestock industry contribute an estimated 18% of greenhouse gas emissions, but the waste emanating from these operations is staggering and poorly managed. A pig produces 3 gallons of faeces a day. In addition, some of this waste runs off into rivers that flow into the sea and help create dead zones in which no fish can live. This book is the single best guide to the issues and can be highly recommended. The five parts look at the impact of animal farming on the environment, farming practices and animal welfare, the implications of meat production for human health, ethical and religious approaches to animal foods, and finally the challenge of devising farming and food policies for a sustainable future.

I have spent part of the last few months co-authoring a book called The Protein Crunch, and have therefore been steeped in environmental issues. Readers can appreciate from the figures given above that the forecast increase in the consumption may be neither sustainable nor attainable. The main drivers are Chinese and Indian middle classes moving up the food chain and wanting to eat not only more meat but also more fish. This has already produced considerable effects in world markets. Only 15 years ago, China was self-sufficient in soya, but it now has 500 million of the 900 million pigs on the planet, which each a soya-based grain diet where the soya has to be imported from Brazil. This in turn is correlated with the destruction of rainforests firstly for cattle and subsequently for soya production. For other environmental reasons connected with land and water, it is going to be difficult to increase grain production sufficiently to cater for a near doubling of meat consumption by 2050. It takes 1,000 litres of water to produce a kilo of grain and between 15 and 24 kg of grain to produce a kilo of beef. So producing a kilo of beef can take up to 24,000 litres of water. Moreover, people in many Western countries, principally the USA, are eating far too much meat for their health and could be encouraged to reduce consumption. But as Jonathon Porritt points out, encouraging people to eat less meat will be politically problematic since it is so closely associated with rising aspirations and living standards.

The chapters on welfare set out the minimum acceptable standards, and demonstrate that most CAFOs failed to live up to these and are able to disregard many environmental regulations connected with waste disposal. Further competition and intensification will encourage them to cut more corners, with potentially disastrous results. It is already clear that industrial production of animals has led to the emergence and spread of diseases in human populations. The chapter on chickens shows a similar process of intensification with animals bred for large breasts scarcely able to stand after five weeks. Again, the competition in this industry is intense, and animals now reach a greater weight in less time than ever before. So one can understand why risky practices emerge, but it is incumbent on governments to impose the necessary regulations.

It is clear that animals are now competing with humans for the available grain supply, a situation exacerbated by the fact that a quarter of corn production in the US is now devoted to ethanol. So this means that cars are competing with humans as well. With lower overall consumption of meat, it would be easier to feed the planet. The current food system is neither sustainable nor fit for purpose in that 1 billion people are on the edge of starvation and over 1.3 billion are overweight, a figure that is rising rapidly. So the same system that produces absolute undernutrition also produces overconsumptive undernutrition due to rising consumption of junk foods. In this respect, the food industry has a great deal to answer for, but the bottom line is profit and if people continue to buy these addictive substances, the companies will continue to make money. At a more fundamental level, it turns out that the short-term orientation of capitalism is not compatible with long-term sustainable agriculture. This book will give you a much better understanding of the role of meat in the bigger picture.