Meat Limiting Approach

Recent environmental events like global warming, water and air pollution, loss of biodiversity, deforestation, and land degradation demonstrate the effect of human activities on the environment. These events are brought about by a wide range of human activities, particularly the emission of greenhouse gases due to industrialization. Zur & Klockner (2014) contend that household consumption is the major contributor of human-related emissions. This implies that housing, food, and transport are the major factors contributing to environmental effects. Given these factors, efforts to promote and enhance environmental sustainability focus on limiting household consumption, particularly meat consumption. While numerous arguments have been raised to support meat consumption, this paper argues that meat consumption has positive environmental, social, and behavioral effects.

Overview of Meat Consumption

Meat consumption is one of the broad categories of behaviors in which the preferences of individuals have a significant impact on the environment and sustainability. Zur & Klockner (2014) define meat consumption as voluntary behavior involving meat intake. Meat is regarded as one of the most nourishing and highly consumed foods (Albenny, 2020). Over the past few decades, the demand for meat and animal products has increased because of rising incomes, sociocultural factors, and an increase in population. In addition, the global community faces significant challenges relating to food security as the size of the global population continues to stretch the global ecosystem. While the need for food security has increased in recent decades, meat consumption has attracted significant attention in relation to its effect on health and the environment. The probable health and environmental effects of meat consumption have played a key role in increased arguments on limiting the intake of these food products. The production and consumption of animal products is viewed as a more urgent problem, particularly in relation to promoting environmental sustainability.

The Case for Meat Consumption

The focus on environmental sustainability and food security has generated concerns about the extent to which limiting meat consumption would ensure sustainability and improve food security. Currently, limiting meat consumption is viewed as critical to improving food security and ensuring sustainability because of the negative health and environmental effects of overconsumption of meat products. Proponents of meat limiting approach have argued that it would help to avoid unsustainable livestock production, which has been one of the major contributors to negative environmental effects. They argue that increased demand for meat products is associated with contaminated freshwater supplies, biodiversity loss, water and land degradation, and increased greenhouse gas emissions (Rust et al.,...

…relative risk of meat consumption in generating health effects like colon cancer is 1.18. This risk level falls significantly below what should be considered by epidemiologists. This implies that the relative risk of meat consumption in generating human and environmental health effects is substantially low. Since other risk factors play a critical role in human health effects of meat consumption, lessening the intake of meat products would not improve food security and ensure sustainability.

In conclusion, meat consumption remains a controversial and divisive issue that has attracted arguments and counterarguments. This approach has some pros and cons, which have been the subject of debates regarding meat limiting. On one hand, there are claims that reducing meat consumption would have positive effects on food security and environmental sustainability. However, there is scientific evidence to in support of meat consumption in relation to environmental effects, social acceptance, and behavior change. Meat consumption helps to create a balance in global ecosystems that would be significantly burdened and damaged by dependence on plant-based food items. In addition, achieving the desired levels of social acceptance and behavior change for reduction of meat intake would be impossible because of the importance meat holds in todays social norms. Finally, the association of meat consumption with health effects like…