Enjeux - Are attacks against meat justified?

Are attacks against meat justified?

The production and consumption of meat have come under increasing attack in the last few years. Meat production has been accused of “starving” the planet because of the water and plant matter it requires. It is criticised for its greenhouse gas emissions, for battery farming and overly-dense animal populations, and for using antibiotics. Meat is also considered to be harmful to health. But it should not be forgotten that humans have eaten meat for millions of years, that consumption in developed countries such as France has stabilised and even decreased, that the livestock farming systems developed in France and Europe have little in common with those in Brazil and the USA, and also that meat is a source of the protein and iron essential to our health.
Do we really eat too much meat? Is it really true that livestock farming is competing with crop farming for land? And is meat really bad for our health?
This article does not intend to answer all the questions currently being asked, quite simply because there are so many points to consider. But it does try to shed some light on the most commonly raised issues.

THE CONCEPT

Humans have always eaten meat

The very first humans ate meat, though the proportion varied according to when and where they lived. We have gained a reasonably precise idea of what they ate by studying their skeletons, environment and tools. For example, we know that seven million years ago australopithecus was omnivorous, eating plants, roots, insects and small animals. Humans started to eat meat more regularly in the Pliocene age (between 5.33 million and 1.81 million years ago) with the onset of hunting. And meat has been a staple for us ever since. In some climates hunting and fishing accounted for up to 80% of the diet of the human species in the Paleolithic period. 
Milk and cereals became a part of our diet more recently, in the Neolithic age (9,000 to 3,300 BC), with the beginning of agriculture, livestock farming and sedentarisation. The fact that we only recently started consuming dairy products would explain why some populations still have trouble digesting them.
Besides providing man with protein and energy, meat has also played an essential role in the organisation of our society from a sociological, biological and religious standpoint. This in any case is the opinion expressed by Marylène Patou-Mathis, head of research at CNRS and a specialist in prehistory, in her book “Mangeurs de viande. De la préhistoire à nos jours” (“Meat Eaters. From Prehistory to Today”). Over time, meat has been banned for cultural and religious reasons, including beef in India and pork for Muslims and Jews. 

Meat consumption worldwide and in Europe

Meat consumption in countries and groups of countries in 2007 (kg per inhabitant per year) (kg carcass equivalent)
Average meat consumption worldwide is 40 kg per inhabitant per year. But major disparities exist from one country to the next. Industrialised countries are the biggest meat-eaters, particularly the USA and Australia, at nearly 123 kg/inhab/year. South Americans are also fans of meat, as are Europeans (91 kg/inhab/year in Argentina and 80 kg/inhab/year in Brazil). Consumption in Asia and Africa is considerably below the world average (28 kg/inhab/year in Asia and 11 kg/inhab/year in east Africa). Meat consumption in India – where a large proportion of the population is vegetarian – is among the lowest in the world, at 3.3 kg/inhab/year.
Meat consumption in the European Union (EU27) is considerably lower than in Australia or the USA, at 82 kg per inhabitant in 2009, with major differences between individual countries. The biggest consumers are Cyprus, Spain and Portugal, with over 100 kg/inhab/year, while levels are lower in the new Member States, and Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia and Slovakia in particular, with 60 kg/inhab/year. The consumption rate in France is slightly higher than the European average, with inhabitants eating an average 87.8 kg a year.

Meat consumption falling in France

Total meat consumption in France rose steadily from 1945 to 1988, at which point it stabilised, at around 5.7 million tonnes (carcass equivalent). With the population growing, this signifies a fall in individual meat consumption over the last ten years. The French ate an average 77.7 kg of meat per person per year in 1970, a figure that rose to 94.5 kg in 1998 and fell back to 87.8 kg in 2009.
The French are eating an increasingly diverse range of meat. On average they consume 25.4 kg of beef a year, 34.3 kg of pig meat, 24.2 kg of chicken and 3.6 kg of lamb and mutton (carcass equivalent).
Also in France, the consumption of white meat – and poultry in particular – is increasing to the detriment of beef, lamb and mutton, and horse.

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