Meat is bad for us

As if I needed another reason to talk about changing our eating habits, here comes a piece from TIME that’s equally insightful and shocking.

As the developing world grows richer, hundreds of millions of people will want to shift to the same calorie-heavy, protein-rich diet that has made Americans so unhealthy — demand for meat and poultry worldwide is set to rise 25% by 2015 — but the earth can no longer deliver. Unless Americans radically rethink the way they grow and consume food, they face a future of eroded farmland, hollowed-out countryside, scarier germs, higher health costs — and bland taste. Sustainable food has an elitist reputation, but each of us depends on the soil, animals and plants — and as every farmer knows, if you don’t take care of your land, it can’t take care of you.

Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food – Time Magazine

All of a sudden I have a large handful of reasons to eat even less meat and buy more local, sustainable and organic foods.

I read once that the average American eats seven times as much meat than their body needs. If meat products take significantly more energy to produce than the vegetables and fruits we should be eating and cost more to buy and prepare, we could have a major impact on the American obesity problem, the environment and the economy all at once if we cut our meat intake down to what it should be.

But will it happen? I doubt it. We Americans love our meat, and so do our government officials who get lobbied by meat lovers. Funded by steak- and hamburger-lovers everywhere!