Humans are capable of being Consume meatAs time passes, people have been consuming more of it since the prehistoric era. According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, the global production has quadrupled in the last 50 years to approximately 350 million tonnes annually.
The trend is not slowing down. Current predictions indicate that we will continue producing Up to 455 millions tons a year by 2050.
Inefficient food source
Scientists have been concerned for years about the environmental impacts of this love affair, especially with regard toIndustrially reared animals, and have deemed it an “inefficient” food source, on the basis that it requires more energy, water and land to produce than other things we eat.
A Study on the impact of farming for instance found beef production is responsible for six times more greenhouse gas emissions and requires 36 times more land compared to the production of plant protein, such as peas.
Avoiding meat and dairy products is the biggest way to reduce our environmental impact on the planet, the study concludes. Global farmland use could be slashed by more than 75% without meat and dairy.
What’s more, 60% of global biodiversity loss is caused by meat-based diets, according to World Wildlife Fund (WWF) sources.
The psychology of eating meat
Many of us continue to eat pork regardless. Benjamin Buttlar is a social psychologist at the University of Trier in Germany. He attributes this to culture, habit, and perceived needs.
“I think that a lot people just enjoy the taste. The identity aspect of eating is another thing. Many traditional cuisines revolve around specific meat dishes,” he stated, adding that because we are so used to eating animals we don’t often question what we’re doing.
“And most of all, these habits prevents us from thinking meat consumption is actually harmful because it’s just a thing that we do all of the time,” he stated.
We don’t often see how animals are killed.
We can also dissociate easier if the food we eat doesn’t remind of an animal’s sufferings. But when we are presented with a different perspective, such as by talking to someone else, it is easier to dissociate. Vegetarian or veganButtlar says that when we watch a documentary about animal welfare, we might feel the need for justification, such as saying humans have always eaten beef.
Research shows that justifying eating meat as a natural, normal and necessary part of our diet is something that’s more typical for males.
“You see this in the trends of food,” Buttlar explained. “There are a lot more young females and fewer men who are becoming vegetarian because it’s still a masculine stereotype that men eat meat. This is due to evolutionary misconceptions about meat consumption and strong men hunting.
The’mHypothesis: ‘Eat made us human’
Scientists have long believed that eating meat helped our ancestors to develop more human-like body shapes. They also believe that eating meat and bone broth gave rise to the ability to be more human. Homo ErectusIt required energy to form and sustain a larger brain approximately 2 million years ago.
However, a recentStudy questioned the importance of meat consumption in our evolution.
According to the study authors the evidence for meat consumption in archaeology increases with the appearance H. erectus, this could also be This can be explained by the greater focus on the time period. Or, in another words, a sampling bias.
The study measured the number fossils and the number calcare bones found in major research areas of eastern Africa dating back to 2.6 million to 1.25 million years ago.
The more paleontologists looked for archaeological evidence of bones being butchered, the more they found. According to the authors, the increase in bones observed during this period is not evidence of an explosion in meat consumption.
Briana said, “I was definitely surprised by this discovery.” Pobiner is a paleoanthropologist at Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in America and co-author of the study. “I was a long-time member of that group that had this narrative. H. erectusEvolution occurred because of increased meat consumption. These findings have forced me to reexamine how I see our evolutionary history.
What role did plant-based foods play in our evolution?
Pobiner, an expert on the evolution and evolution of human diets, believes that eating meat might not have contributed to our brains growing in size.
“We don’t notice a significant increase of brain size when meat eating began. The brain size increased dramatically with the introduction of meat. H. erectusHowever, it didn’t get significantly bigger until about a million year ago.
Our ancestors may not have eaten meat to grow their brains.
There is evidence that early humans cooked their food at the same time their brains grew. Because food is easier to chew and softer, heating it unlocks additional nutrients and speeds up digestion.
Pobiner also believes human evolution is attributable to a healthy dietary mix.
Pobiner stated that there are interesting ideas that it is not just one type of food that drives our evolutionary history. But it is actually being able to eat many different foods that made us successful and that made us human.”
Currently, 75% of the food in the world comes from 75%Only 12 plants and five animals are available. It can cause health problems if humans eat too many of one food source.
“Innumerable studies show that when human beings consume animal protein, it is linked to the development of a variety of cancers,” Dr. Milton Mills, an internal medicine and critical care physician in the US, told DW.
Some Mills says that vegetarians and vegans often don’t get enough nutrition and protein from their diets.Who is an advocate His own plant-based diet was created Website to raise awareness of the issue, disagrees.
“These theories were created 50-60 years ago, when people mistakenly believed that meat was healthier than plant foods. It was a grossly false belief that people used to believe that only certain amino acid could be obtained from animal tissues. Mills stated that this is flatly false.
What’s next?
If the appetite for meat remains unchanged, the world population could be too big to feed itself by 2050When we reach almost 10 billion people, that’s when we’ll be able to count on the global population.
How can global meat consumption be lowered? Psychologist Buttlar believes incremental change with “top-down intervention” is the way forward.
“ForFor example, making meat products as costly as they need to be in order to secure animal welfare and the climate. And by making alternatives cheaper,” he said.
According to Buttlar allows people to Positive associationsAlternatives made from plants
“We should not push them away by saying, “You shouldn’t eat any meat,” but rather say, “Have you tried this?” This is It is really good. And once they realize plant-based food tastes the same or even better, and it’s even better for my health, for the climate, and animal welfare, then change will come automatically.”
Already, changes in attitudes are evident even in everyday life. Germany is meat-loving. According to the statistics for 2021, the market for meat alternatives is thriving with a 17% increase in the production of plant-based foods compared to 2020.
Edited by Tamsin Walker and Jennifer Collins
