TO THE TRUTH I NEVER KNEW, NOW I CAN MAKE IT WITHOUT YOU

HAPPY MONDAY!

Firstly, thank you so much for taking this journey with me to find out more about livestock production and the impacts we are making through unconscious everyday decisions. I enjoyed writing this blog much more than I expected, and I am so thankful for having the chance to give it a go. Whilst you may have learnt a lot from this blog, it has been a learning curve for me too, and I've constantly been growing as I learn more about the information I'm digging out.

Although this is the end of my Geography assessment, but I would really appreciate it if you left me any comments with your thoughts and if you have any great website links for me to learn even more! I would LOVE to read it!

So, into the nitty gritty stuff, I'm going to just briefly outline the main solutions to the meat problem.

1. Government

The government needs to find ways to discourage major producers from rearing livestock near city areas through either zoning, taxes or incentives. For example, in Thailand, there are high taxes on poultry production within a 100km radius of Bangkok. This has been effective in reducing poultry production near Bangkok.

2. Waste management

Use manure as a fertiliser rather than polluting waters.

3. You

Become as vegetarian/vegan as you possibly can. “Eat meat, but less often — make it special,” Mark Sutton, lead author of a U.N. Environment Programme 2013 study on meat consumption, said. “Portion size is key. Many portions are too big, more than you want to eat. Think about a change of culture that says, ‘I like the taste, but I don’t need so much of it.’”

I want to leave you with something very important that I have learnt through this journey with you.

Understand that you, as a consumer, have a level of social responsibility. What you spend your money on is the key to change (by altering demand, it can alter supply).

Mooney says "If they are informed that they do have choices to help build a  more sustainable and equitable world, they can make better choices."

Finally, a quick reminder of the serious extent of animals slaughtered just for the plate on your table.

You've been such amazing readers every Monday, I really hope you're able to join my Meatless Mondays, whether I have a new post every Monday or not! To make me very happy, please sign the Meatless Monday pledge!!

http://www.meatlessmonday.com/pledge-to-go-meatless/

SOCIAL VEGANS AVOID 'MEET'

American diets (and Western diets in general) tend to lean towards the 'meat lover' on the scale of things (although developing countries are catching up too). 

Where do you think you fit in with the five categories below?

For each of the diets, the results are based on food supply, so it does not take into account the way consumers store and transport the foods. (The methodology for this can be found here.) 

"Reducing the intake of meat and other animal based products can make a valuable contribution to climate change mitigation, other work has demonstrated other environmental and health benefits of a reduced meat diet. National governments that are considering an update of dietary recommendations in order to define a 'healthy, sustainable diet' must incorporate the recommendation to lower the consumption of animal-based products."

Currently, vegetarianism as depicted above, is very high in parts of India with 375 millions of vegetarians. This may be as a direct result of their culture and religion and traditional ideologies in India. On the other hand, those in Western countries like USA and the EU are lagging far behind India with only a few million vegetarians/vegans.

In the average diet animal products make up 60% of emissions despite accounting for just a quarter of food energy.

For the Meat Lover beef consumption causes almost half of emissions from just a tenth of food energy.

In the No Beef diet all the reductions from the Average foodprint come by switching  from beef to chicken.

The difference between the Vegetarian and Vegan diets arises from dairy consumption being switched to a mix of cereals and vegetables.

This data really shocked me, so I thought I had to share it with you! Science shows that becoming vegan is the best way to save our planet and fight global warming. According to the official handbook for Live Earth, reports show that not eating meat is the “single most effective thing you can do.” However, it is very beneficial to precisely lay out the foodprints to get a clearer picture of how one does not have to specifically make the full commitment like those individuals in the Vegucated documentary did. By just substituting a few of the foods you eat most, to foods that produce lower carbon emissions, one can still make a big difference to the environment. The website explains this perfectly;

A Vegetarian’s foodprint is about two thirds of the average American and almost half that of a meat lover. For a Vegan it is even lower. But perhaps most interestingly, eating chicken instead of beef cuts a quarter of emissions in one simple step.

On a happy note, it seems there is definitely a growing portion of the global population who are interested in vegetarian benefits. Below is a chart of page views on Wikipedia for the pages on "Vegetarianism" and "Veganism".

Another incentive to substitute beef with chicken; production of poultry is much cheaper since they take up less space and are more efficient to feed than other livestock. 

So, you will be saving money too!

Happy Meatless Monday! Tune in NEXT MONDAY for THE FINAL POST!

A LITTLE TASTE OF THE OTHER SIDE

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Thought I'd leave a lighter post for you all to read in the New Year's so let's take a look behind the scenes of your favourite meal at your favourite restaurant. What are the responsibilities of chefs and how are they related to improving social awareness of what is 'good' for you and what is 'bad'?

The Social Responsibilities of Chefs:

http://elitedaily.com/life/culture/social-responsibility-chefs-consumers/618763/

AS THE ROMANS SAY, "RARA SUNT CARA". RARE IS VALUABLE. (CHINA)

The changes in diet occurring in China carry rippling effects around the world. What China’s hungry for makes a difference, said Janet Larsen of the Earth Policy Institute, adding that, “when a few people jump it may cause a ripple, but when a billion people jump, it’s a major shockwave.”

This week, we will be momentarily going back in time in China to compare eating habits in the past to today's eating habits.

Sorry, it might not be all that fancy...

Last week we focused on the consumption trends in USA, this week we are focusing on an even bigger area and an even bigger problem. China now eats twice as much meat as the United States. This is evident in the diagram below. Meat consumption in China is increasing for various reasons and we will be inspecting the main reasons for this trend in today's post. 

Meat consumption compared between China and U.S.

China in 1980's:

Meat was seen as a luxury; each Chinese ate just 13kg of meat, the equivalent to one tenth of a pig a year. On the other hand, beef was so rare it was nicknamed "Millionaire's meat". 

As China started to emerge from a state of poverty, meat consumption increased. As the Romans say, "Rara Sunt Cara", Rare is valuable. Since China's incomes were, and still are increasing many traditional Chinese foods are being switched to the 'luxury foods'. Instead of rice, individuals are replacing this with meats. Beginning in the 1980s, officials enacted measures to promote livestock production, including support for development of a feed-milling industry and subsidized imports of more productive animal breeds. Such incentives has led to incorrect information in the economy and incorrect incentives; individuals became more enthusiastic about livestock production and began to see it positively.

Dinner would probably look something like this in 1980's

China today:

Currently, China is a big player not only on the demand side, but the supply side too. “China produces and consumes about half of the pork in the world,” Schuele said." Consumption and demand of meat is increasing as low income families gradually climb the ladder up to become middle income families. The meals an average Chinese middle income family is eating now, would be a feast to their parents. 

Moreover, Meat consumption is doubling every 10 years." In all, the country now eats more than 60m tonnes of meat a year; equivalent to 240 million cows, or 600 million pigs, or 24 billion chickens. These facts suggest a very large scale problem that is arising not only in the respects of greenhouse gases emitted in the process but also feed needed for the livestock. Since meat consumption is increasing, it has led to individuals noticing this trend and moving towards setting up small farms. A shift in those with household and small farm productions to larger scale meat factories. This seems to be showing a cyclical trend, in which higher demands lead to higher supply and this reduces prices, such that demand can increase even more.

A meal in China today

Benefits:

So far we have focused on the trends in meat production and consumption in China. Having read my previous posts, one can assume that the increasing trends are detrimental to the planet. It is true in some respects, but on a micro level, it has actually shown a big improvement to the Chinese people's lives.

In lifting 300 million people out of poverty over the past 30 years, China also saw an improvement in diets that made the country healthier. According to the World Food Programme, a six-year-old boy today in China is 6kg heavier and 6cm taller than his counterpart at the start of economic reforms in 1978.

Although it may be true that the health conditions of the people in China may have improved, this correlation may not be directly as a result of the consumption of meat. It could be argued that due to increasing incomes, families can now afford to buy more varieties of foods. In poorer areas of China, families may be eating the exact same foods at each meal; this means the nutrients absorbed would be very limited. By having higher incomes, more varied vegetables could be introduced into the Chinese diet instead of putting emphasis on the role of meat.

Beef:

Beef has not become as popular in China because cattle in feedlots gobble up about 7 pounds of grain for each pound of weight gain. For pigs, the feeding ratio is 3 to 1, and for chickens it is 2 to 1. With one fifth of the world's population and limited land and water supplies, China has had to rely heavily on the more-efficient forms of animal protein. 

This is good news for the environment since beef is the biggest contributor to global warming as discussed in previous posts. On the other hand, other meats have been a big hit in China instead.

Pork:

Over half of the world's pigs now live in China. By the end of the year, it is projected that there will be almost twice as many pigs in China as people in America. In the last few decades, China has developed the world's largest pork industry to feed a rising middle class. A quickly rising appetite for pork in China has fueled the sudden jump in production. In mid 1970s, an average Chinese citizen ate 8kg of pork a year. Now, each person eats about 39kg of pork a year. 

China has now overtaken American pork consumption

Poultry:

Poultry production never existed prior to 1978. Chicken flocks in China have grown rapidly. Since the raising of chickens are much simpler and easier than raising ruminants, China has been a big producer of Chickens. The demand and consumption of poultry is also growing.

Although some may perceive that consuming poultry is not as bad for the environment since chickens do not emit methane the way ruminants do, the main environmental concerns are derived from the chicken feed. According to earth-policy.org, more than 60% of the world soybean exports, nearly all from the United States, Brazil and Argentina, go to China. These crops are very often grown in highly unsustainable conditions; ways which involve deforestation which leads to a reduction of biodiversity. 

Sorry, you just can't win either way I'm afraid.

Happy Meatless Monday! Tune in next Monday for a new post on UK meat consumption trends!

SUPER SIZE ME (U.S.A.)

If everyone in the world ate like the average American, the Global Footprint Network estimates that we would need 4.1 planet earths – unfortunately, we only have one. 

Global meat production is highest in China, EU and the USA. Of the three, the US is highlighted as having the highest meat demand among the rich countries as identified in a previous post on worldwide production and consumption compared according to the Business Insider. Consequently, we will be focusing on the US in the current post leaving the remaining countries in the following posts.

This week I watched a video called 'Meat the Truth' based on the contribution of the livestock industry on greenhouse gas emissions. It highlights how citizens are not often aware of the main contributor to global warming mostly thinking that it lies in the transport sector. Their reactions after finding out that livestock production is the biggest contributor is extremely invaluable in understanding that there is much more to be done in educating the world on the facts of global warming. (18% of global warming is from the livestock sector, whilst 13% is from thetransport sector.) Although, we cannot fully put consumers at fault, since "livestock's impact is not well understood by the public, or even thefarmers themselves" quoted by FAO. 

What I found most interesting in the video was Howard Lyman who illustrated exactly that.  He was a farm owner who did not fully understand his responsibility and contributions to global warming. But when he did, he closed down his farm and became vegan. This goes to show just how consequential and significant it is, for one to be educated in this sector and for them to realise that they have the power to turn it around. Furthermore, the video neatly portrays how cutting down meat consumption can make a remarkable impact through easily digestible analogies. 

This talk was presented in America with the data used being interviews of the American people. Thus, a lot of the information is reared towards the American diets and opinions. Nonetheless, it is extremely interesting to watch. I won't delay you any more, enjoy!

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After watching the video, we may all be feeling kind of guilty for the burger meal we just consumed for lunch... well, on the bright side, here are some facts that suggest the livestock sector is not as bad or exaggerated as it seems in the video, and perhaps there are a few positive changes in consumption habits since the video has been made.

Cattle inventory:

As shown above, cattle inventory in America is reducing slowly and this is a good sign. In addition, as illustrated in the graph below, that despite a steep inclination leading up to 2012, we can see that there is a definite decline in meat consumption recently. Thus, again, we may see this positively.

Total meat consumption in USA

This reduction in meat consumption could be as a result of consumers becoming more health conscious, but it could also just be because of stagnant population and income growth. Despite the reason, a slight reduction is definitely a good sign. Having seen some evidence of a turn in the American consumption habits, the picture gets a bit blurry at this point, when we discuss the changes in different meats consumed;

Although we can see that the consumption of beef is declining, the consumption of other meats is increasing. Having been a very loyal reader of my blog (I'm sure you are), you may notice that cows seem to be contributing to global warming more so than other animals; nonetheless, the increase in other meats being consumed means this could reach an equilibrium in which a reduction in one area and an increase in another will simply balance out.

This highlights that although the video is quite hard on the view that Americans need to immediately change their diets by precisely pinpointing why we should be reducing our meat consumption, the graphs above is indicative that perhaps America has been slowly putting some efforts towards this.

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If you didn't get a chance to watch the video, this is the main thing I would want you to take from it:

If all Americans ate vegetarian for:

7 days a week, they would save around 700 megatonnes of greenhouse gases emissions, which is equivalent to taking every single car off the roads in America.

6 days a week, that is equivalent to eliminating the total electricity use of all households in the States.

5 days a week, that is equivalent to planting 13 billion trees in your garden and letting them grow for 10 years

4 days a week, carbon savings halving electric use of electricity gas oil petroleum and karosene

3 days a week, almost 300 mega tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions - more impact than replacing all cars in US with hybrid ones.

2 days a week, same positive effect as reducing greenhouse gases as replacing all household appliances with energy efficient ones

1 day a week, 90 million plane tickets from New York to LA and vice versa


So, is your meatless day just Monday/one day? If you came from being no meatless day to one meatless day, I'm already very, very proud of you.

Happy Meatless Monday! Tune in next Monday for a new post on the consumption patterns of China!

WELL, MAYBE THERE ARE ULTERIOR MOTIVES TO TURNING VEGETARIAN...

On a lighthearted note... 

9 Reasons why Vegetarians Make Awesome Girlfriends

GET VEGUCATED

This week I came across a documentary which highlighted the journey of a few Americans changing their American diets to a vegan diet. Being able to see Americans go from one extreme to the other; being heavy meat eaters and transitioning to clean plant based palettes is actually very inspiring.

The journeys show how each person from varying backgrounds went through ups and downs through the transition phase and dictates the possible trip ups we may face which are all rather understandable.

Take a look at the documentary to see how they change their diets and the explanations on environmental impacts but also, whether livestock production is as humane as we imagine!


If you only want to see the environmental impact explanation only, skip to 35.00mins! 

Happy watching!

Perhaps even UCL should get vegucated!!

These are some posters I spotted around UCL...

Although the information may be true, and of course we should all think twice before using up resources, but I have never EVER come across a poster in canteens to say 'Did you know of the impacts of choosing this meal of steak and chips?'