Meat Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Meat is the edible, fleshy parts of animals used as food. It is an important component of the human diet because it is rich in protein, iron, selenium, and zinc, as well as being a good source of vitamins, notably vitamins B1 to B5. It constitutes a major link between society and environment because environmental resources are necessary to produce it and society is partially sustained by it.

Throughout prehistory and history, meat acquisition, consumption, and trade have contributed to the development of society and been responsible for environmental change as hunting/gathering has given way to organized animal husbandry. In general meat is classified as red, white, or game. Red meat derives from sheep, cattle, and pig while white meat derives from poultry, and game is the flesh of wild animals or birds. Meat production and consumption are also controversial issues not only because of the fundamental issue of eating animal flesh but also because of the treatment and butchery of animals in agricultural systems. The production, processing, and selling of meat and meat products are sources of employment and wealth generation worldwide.

A Brief History of Meat

There are several thresholds that can be recognized in the context of meat eating in prehistory. First, there is the onset of meat consumption by the ancestors of modern humans about 2.5 million years ago. This practice is characteristic of the early hominids, specifically Homo erectus, and is one feature that distinguishes the hominids from their australopithecine, apelike ancestors. The evidence for meat eating derives from cut marks on animal bones and the patterns of wear on the teeth of hominid skeletons found in archaeological sites. Some archaeologists subscribe to the hypothesis that meat acquisition and sharing contributed to social, linguistic, and brain development. The earliest meat acquisition was probably through opportunistic scavenging.

Second, hunting developed about 2 million years ago as an active food procurement strategy that required cooperation, planning, and group activity. This is linked with the control of fire and tool making. Third, further control was exerted by modern humans (Homo sapiens) beginning around 12,000 years ago with the first animal domestications and the initiation of the first agricultural systems. The main center of origin was the Near East, where goats, cattle, sheep, and pigs, the mainstays of modern pastoral agricultural systems, were domesticated. Other animals, for example, chicken, turkey, goose, duck, ox (yak), and rabbit, were domesticated subsequently. The dog was the first animal to be domesticated, possibly around 20,000 years ago, mostly for assistance with hunting and guarding but dog is eaten by some societies in the Far East.

Most modern meat consumption involves these animals but other animals are also consumed, notably those referred to as game, such as deer and game birds, for example, quail and pheasant. Moreover, bush meat, comprising any type of hunted or trapped wild animal, is consumed in many countries, especially those of low income or where famine and/or war render food scarce.

Once domesticated, livestock were introduced into Europe, Africa, and Asia and in some cases, notably cattle, additional domestication may have occurred independently in Africa and Asia. Animal herding, along with the spread of crops, resulted in deforestation as woodlands were converted to agricultural land. It has thus been a major agent of environmental change during the last 10,000 years. The impact of livestock rearing has also been significant in the Americas and Oceania, notably in Australia and New Zealand. This impact has been more recent than in the rest of the world because it was not until the discovery and annexation of these lands by Europe that cattle, sheep, and other livestock spread to these continents. This began in the Americas following the voyages of Columbus, which began in 1492, but later in Oceania following annexation by the British of Australia in the 1770s and New Zealand in 1840. All of these regions are major livestock producers today.

Most livestock species are herbivores; this means that they obtain energy for survival and reproduction from plant material, which in turn derives energy from the sun through photosynthesis. Consequently livestock are described as primary consumers, insofar as they consume the plants that are the primary producers, and as secondary producers because they are second in the food chain. Human consumers are secondary consumers. In terms of energy transfers within the system, the sun is the ultimate source of energy, but only organisms that can photosynthesize can harvest the light energy. Thus plants as forage are vital to livestock production and ultimately to human sustenance, which requires an intake of protein. This can be obtained directly from plants but occurs in a concentrated form in meat.

Over the centuries, livestock have been bred for specific characteristics including food value. Meat production can be classified into three types. First, intensive animal rearing as it occurs in Europe and North America involves the use of animal health products such as vaccines and antibiotics, and possibly pasture produced using artificial fertilizers, along with “finishing,” that is, indoor fattening prior to processing in a slaughterhouse. Second is small-scale animal rearing, in which animals such as poultry and pigs are raised for the needs of an individual household or farm to provide protein for the family and are fed from farm and household waste.

Third is the rearing of animals on much of the earth’s surface that is unsuitable for growing crops but that can produce animal protein due to the capacity of ruminants to convert low-quality forage into protein as milk or meat. Such areas include the continental interiors of Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas. In Eurasia and Africa, millions of people are supported by this extensive type of pastoral system in lands where plant productivity, and, hence, animal productivity, is constrained by environmental characteristics, especially annual temperature and rainfall regimes and soil type. Here, grasslands and shrublands support herds of grazing animals at low density; the animals are managed by nomadic peoples whose animal herds represent their wealth. Examples include the Saami people of northern Scandinavia (Lapland) and the Nenet people of northern Eurasia, who herd reindeer; these animals graze lichen-rich pastures in far northern continental regions in summer and retreat to the boreal forest zone in winter. In contrast, the Fulani people of West Africa and their neighbors, the Tuareg, follow the rains in semiarid and savanna regions to seek green pastures for their herds of cattle, sheep, goats, and camels.

Over time, many socioeconomic factors have influenced the quality and quantity of meat consumed. These include proximity to production, wealth, costs of other foods, transport availability, religious constraints, and health considerations. Technological factors are also important, notably the development of large-scale meat processing; the establishment of rapid transport systems via land, sea, and eventually air; as well as the development of refrigeration, which altered meat production and consumption patterns at all scales from the international to the domestic. Large-scale meat processing requiring industrial-scale slaughterhouses developed in response to the rapid urbanization that accompanied the Industrial Revolution, which began in the 1750s.

The emergence of large concentrations of people in Europe and North America in particular provided a ready market for all types of animal products as well as fresh meat. Cities like Chicago came to preeminence for their meat packing capability. Consequently, livestock was transported to cities and towns and then slaughtered, in contrast to the former practice of on-farm processing. Initially, the animals were themselves herded from the pastures to the slaughterhouses, but this changed as rail and, later, road transport systems were developed.

The invention of refrigeration in the first half of the 18th century made enormous differences to meat transport, its market price, and availability. Moreover, it encouraged meat production in countries distant from the main markets, especially in South America, Australia, and New Zealand, where large-scale ranching of cattle and sheep in semiarid regions began to produce meat for the voracious European market to which it was transported via refrigerated ships. Exports of meat continue to be significant earners of foreign currencies for these countries, though the markets now include the rapidly developing nations of Southeast Asia. Additional technologies that have influenced meat consumption include canning, vacuum sealing, the advent of supermarket ready meals containing meat, fast-food outlets, and pet-food production.

Patterns of Meat Consumption

Table 1 gives global livestock data for 2004, though, of course, not all animal parts are consumed as meat. In some countries, such as India, which has the second highest number of cattle at 185 million, the animals are kept mainly for their milk; similarly sheep are kept for wool production as well as meat. Many countries export meat and meat products, which constitute an important source of revenue as is the case for Brazil which, at 192 million head, has the highest numbers of cattle in the world, and Argentina, which has almost 51 million. The United States has almost 95 million head, but most of the meat produced is consumed at home.

	Number of Animals
Cattle	1,339,295,570
Goats	782,947,553
Sheep	1,058,600,770
Pigs	947,801,201
Chickens	16,351,860,000

Table 1. World livestock data for 2004 (FAO, 2005).

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) also collects information on meat consumption. In 2002 almost 40 kilograms (or 88 pounds; 1 kilogram equals 2.2 pounds) of meat were consumed on average per person worldwide. However, there are marked differences between world regions, which mainly reflect patterns of income. Meat consumption in the richest nations of North America is almost 10 times higher than that in the poorest nations of sub-Saharan Africa. Moreover, meat production and consumption worldwide has been gradually increasing. In 2002 livestock production amounted to 242 million metric tons of meat; this was five times the production in 1950 and double that of 1977. The growth has occurred mainly in newly industrializing countries such as China and India.

Environmental Cost of Meat

In terms of the environment, there are concerns about this trend. First, grains, which could be consumed directly by humans in a more energy-efficient food chain, are being diverted into animal feed. Second, additional land is required to sustain meat production either through the increased production of grain or the creation of pasture. Such an increase in agricultural land occurs at the expense of remaining natural ecosystems resulting in the loss of forests and savannas and their store of carbon.

Bibliography:

Carrick Devine and Michael Dikeman, eds., Encyclopedia of Meat Sciences (Elsevier, 2004);
Food and Agriculture Organization, FAOSTAT database, fao.org (cited July 2006);
James Gillespie, Modern Livestock and Poultry Production, 6th (Delmar, 2002);
Craig Stanford and Henry Bunn,eds., Meat Eating and Human Evolution (Oxford University Press, 2001);
Peter Ungar and Mark Teaford,eds., Human Diet: Its Origin and Evolution (Bergin andGarvey, 2002);
Paul Warriss, Meat Science: An Introductory Text (CABI Publishing, 2000).