Live Small and Prosper: Prepare now for less meat in the future

Too bad it’s BBQ season, but cut back by about 10 per cent for starters, I say.

From A Small History of Progress:

“Population growth is slowing, but by 2050 there will be 3 billion more on earth.”

“We may be able to feed that many in the short run, but we’ll have to raise less meat (which takes ten pounds of food to make one pound of food), and we’ll have to spread that food around.”

“What we can’t do is keep consuming as we are.”

[For those who think 2050 is a long, long way off, think about the age of the youngest member of your family. By 2050 my grandson Ollie will be 43, just a young pup. Twins due in September will be 41.]


["Ollie and friend will be young pups in 2050": photo GAH]

Cutting back meat consumption by even 10 per cent - to prepare for a frugal future - will be a big challenge for my fellow Canadians. We get 32 per cent of our fat from meat (and alternatives) and we love our meat - our growing waistlines say as much.

Why a big challenge?

Ingrained habits - we eat what we want when we want. Big portions too. We’ve lived in a world without limits for 60 years.

Marketing and media - “eat eat eat” is a constant message. Put all the capital letters together from M and M Meats and you get MMM.

Big business - the meat industry is a giant enterprise and will see the growing population as business opportunity, not a reason to conserve.

Governments - can politicians find a way to effectively educate and encourage consumers/voters to conserve resources and trim the fat off their lifestyle because a growing population threatens resources? How can they sell the message we live in a country with a market economy that is unsustainable?

HMMM.

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Are we trapped? Is it impossible to reduce consumption without a future crisis?

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