Going Plant-Based Could Save the Planet, So Why Is Demand for Meat on the Rise?
Eating meat and dairy is ingrained in cultures
Steak, hamburgers, ice cream — they hardly seem controversial, do they? But interwoven with our food choices is a moral dilemma of global proportions. Producing meat and dairy has catastrophic environmental impacts to the point that moving to a plant-based diet is the most effective measure you can take to reduce your impact on the planet. And yet most people continue eating meat. In fact, demand for meat is on the rise. Now, some of these statements are bound to raise a few eyebrows, so let’s provide a little context.
For starters, what we eat is heavily influenced by cultural norms. Meat and livestock have played a fundamental role in human societies. For thousands of years, people lived in a ‘world of scarcity’ where life revolved around getting enough food to eat. In a ‘world of scarcity’, meat-eating was predominantly a luxury reserved for the wealthiest in society. In other words, hardly anyone ate meat as no one could afford it.
But advances in machinery after the end of the Second World War have led to massive productivity increases that have created a ‘world of abundance’. The result is that food prices have decreased dramatically relative to incomes. And with increasing…
