Better Meat:
Ok, let me admit that I eat meat at most meals, and just love that bacon. But, I believe that in a few years we will look back and marvel at the barbarism and stunning environmental waste (water consumption and methane production) of meat harvesting today.
Our circle of empathy generally expands over time… but sometimes as a retrospective rationalization. We don’t typically discuss the meat industry in polite conversations because we don’t want to face the inevitable cognitive dissonance (because bacon tastes so good). We don’t really want to know why almost all USDA meat inspectors become vegetarian.
I think all of that will change when viable meat products are grown from cell cultures, not in the field. We will switch, and marvel at our former selves. (So, I am looking for a breakthrough startup in this area. I know of a few, but we have not invested in one yet). I like the latest soy chicken that I tasted, with sinew and texture. I suspect bioengineered meat may be better still.
The December SciAm has an interesting meta-analysis from 1.2 million people, separating red meat from processed red meat (hot dogs, salami, and gasp! bacon, with their nitrates and salt). Strangely, the online version of the article excludes the graphic that shows unprocessed red meat slightly *lowering* the risk of heart attack (but raising it when all red meat consumption is lumped together).
They also summarize how we have intervened in our own evolution: “Regularly eating meat and cooked foods changed our anatomy. Our teeth became smaller and less pointy, our colons shrank and our small intestines grew, all of which improved our ability to chew and digest soft, cooked foods. Calorie-dense meats likely enabled the tripling of our brain size as well.”
SciAm article: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=meat-of-the-matter-modern-methods-preserving-cooking-meat-healthy&print=true
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