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I dunno, frequent, daily meat eating is a relatively new phenomenon for 99% of the population. For a lot of history your worker would eat carbs, vegetables and

I dunno, frequent, daily meat eating is a relatively new phenomenon for 99% of the population. For a lot of history your worker would eat carbs, vegetables and a tiny morsel of meat. Meat is affordable due to grain subsidies, massive industries and vastly underpaid workers. Sure, there was a period before that where hunting was a primary food source, but it's not like humans need to eat meat. Appealing to nature is also a little suspect. There's a lot of things that are "natural" that we don't partake in due to changing ethics and mores. I'll concede that comparing it to smoking is not entirely accurate. Smoking is a very binary relation; you are either a smoker or not. It's much more likely that people in 50-100 years will be light meat eaters, i.e. eat meat once or twice a week. Emerging economies may eat more meat. They may also smoke more. I agree that it's not always productive to demand that an emerging economy follow the rules of a developed economy. But a lot of these emerging economies will not be so emerging in 50-100 years. It's quite possible the populace will reduce their meat consumption as education and concern about the environment increases.

Aloha 5y ago
You analogized it to smoking - there is no safe amount of smoking, it will kill you, sooner, and more unpleasantly. You can consume meat safely, consuming only meat is bad for you in the long run, but a balanced diet is good. Broadly, we need to eat less meat, our meat consumption needs to look like it did 80 years ago, not like it does now.
- meowkit 5y ago
  I’ll tack on here there is also a difference between muscle meat and organ meat. Organ meat has been a staple of traditional diets in every culture, but for some reason(s) its reviled in the modern western diet. Muscle meat is much higher in saturated fat (red beef in particular). That’s really what ends up giving people cardiovascular disease on top of excess sugar consumption and a sedentary lifestyle.
- hardwaregeek 5y ago
  Yeah and I concede that smoking is not exactly like meat eating in that smoking is exceedingly binary. However I stand by my prediction that future generations will look back on how much meat we eat with a generous amount of disgust or shock. Heck, I already do this. I don't understand how people can eat nothing but meat and carbs and feel okay. Doesn't it hurt their digestion?

Aloha 5y ago

You analogized it to smoking - there is no safe amount of smoking, it will kill you, sooner, and more unpleasantly. You can consume meat safely, consuming only meat is bad for you in the long run, but a balanced diet is good. Broadly, we need to eat less meat, our meat consumption needs to look like it did 80 years ago, not like it does now.

meowkit 5y ago
I’ll tack on here there is also a difference between muscle meat and organ meat. Organ meat has been a staple of traditional diets in every culture, but for some reason(s) its reviled in the modern western diet. Muscle meat is much higher in saturated fat (red beef in particular). That’s really what ends up giving people cardiovascular disease on top of excess sugar consumption and a sedentary lifestyle.
hardwaregeek 5y ago
Yeah and I concede that smoking is not exactly like meat eating in that smoking is exceedingly binary. However I stand by my prediction that future generations will look back on how much meat we eat with a generous amount of disgust or shock. Heck, I already do this. I don't understand how people can eat nothing but meat and carbs and feel okay. Doesn't it hurt their digestion?