Review: Should We Eat Meat?: Evolution and Consequences of Modern Carnivory

Should We Eat Meat?: Evolution and Consequences of Modern Carnivory by Vaclav Smil
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"June 26, 2017 –
50.0% ""So, while vegetarianism is common in some Asian cultures, there is no Western culture with a rate of vegetarianism and veganism higher than four percent. Although these numbers could go up, vegetarianism will never replace meat eating or become a common practice in the West.""
June 26, 2017 –
50.0% ""That’s because vegetarians are hard pressed to ensure their diets include enough metals. Since one kilogram of vegetables isn’t nutritionally comparable to one kilogram of meat, it’s much easier to achieve a balanced diet by eating meat, especially for a young child.""
June 26, 2017 –
50.0% "" They also reach their maximum weight in six weeks, a feat that used to take six months to accomplish!To do this they need to be treated with more drugs – both to speed their growth and keep them healthy in crowded barns – and that means that their manure is often toxic. Getting rid of that waste means more environmental degradation...""
June 26, 2017 –
50.0% ""The result?As factory farming became more prevalent it led to specialization, meaning that animals used for breeding were separated from those for slaughter, and the gene pool narrowed. Animals themselves were altered to increase output.For instance, a chicken living today will reach sexual maturity in 18 weeks as opposed to their natural maturation of 25 weeks, which means they can produce more offspring.""
June 26, 2017 –
50.0% ""...Then the method was used to farm pigs, and spread from wealthy countries to Asia and Latin America. Today this method of animal production dominates everywhere but Africa. CAFOs even play a role in cattle raising, but almost exclusively in the United States and Canada.""
June 26, 2017 –
50.0% ""Does the acronym CAFO ring any bells? It stands for Confined Animal Feeding Operations – the kind of production plants that churn out all that cheap meat to meet demand.Factory-style farms in affluent countries began producing chickens raised on standardized feed after World War Two...""
June 26, 2017 –
50.0% ""That’s because most cultures saw meat as an indicator of privilege and social status – a reasonable association, given that meat played an important function in the evolution of the human species, and especially our brains. All that protein and iron helped us grow bigger and better grey matter...""
June 26, 2017 –
50.0% ""Have you ever noticed how prevalent meat eating is throughout history? It’s not a coincidence. In fact, meat served a crucial role in human evolution. For instance, while historical meat consumption has fluctuated, purely vegetarian societies are few and far between...""
June 26, 2017 –
30.0% ""To give you an idea of just how big it is, consider the fact that in 2010 alone humans slaughtered 55 billion chickens, 3 billion ducks and turkeys, 1.4 billion pigs and 300 million cows, most of them in out of sight, large-scale facilities and oftentimes at the hands of unskilled workers, who have little job or financial security.""
June 26, 2017 –
20.0% ""...But these methods are mostly a thing of the past. Today, we have a systematic chain of meat production from breeding to raising to slaughtering to processing to distribution.The scale of this production chain is enormous...""
June 26, 2017 –
20.0% "I am suprised from the stats

"For thousands of years domesticated meat production was done by either a farmer making use of grasslands in the country or by practitioners of mixed farming who integrated animal husbandry and crop production seamlessly into one another...""
June 26, 2017 –
20.0% "5/11"
June 26, 2017 – Started Reading"

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