The Sustainability of Meat Production and Consumption

The sustainability of meat production and consumption

Class:DEC15.46

Name:Tian Li (Tiffany)

Meat consumption has changed significantly due to the development of society. Improvement of living standard shows the increase in wealth and prosperity, which have had an impact on humans diets (Godfray, 2010). It used to be an uncommon phenomenon to have meat as part of one’s daily diet, while most of developed countries now consider meat as indispensable food. Meat contains abundant nutrition, which provides necessary elements for both adults and children. Moderate ingestion of meat can provide energy that activates the body and strengthens muscles. However, overconsumption of meat may cause severe healthy consequences which will increase possibility of getting sick and shorten life expectancy. This paper will argue that the current pattern of meat production and consumption are unsustainable due to the health costs. The processing of meat production may lead to disseminate of pathogens and antibiotic resistance in humans. The meat-based diet contributes to nutrition imbalance and chronic degenerative diseases. These impacts undermine public’s health in an invisible rate.

The present meat processing system is incomplete at all, which causes numerous problems have influenced on human health. According to Korthals(2014),abusing use of antibiotic in process to reduce the bacterium may lead to a residue in the meat, which will pass to the human and then become antibiotic resistance. That means consumers’ bodies are vulnerable to the germina without defiance that are easy to get sick. Meanwhile, medicine contains antibiotic, if humans are resisting to it some diseases will become stubborn to heal. Moreover, heavy use of agrochemicals, such as pesticides, which will expose to the air and eventually infects human. The increasing incidence of Alzheimer’s disease, asthma, birth defects, cancer, learning and developmental disorders, Parkinson’s disease and sterility are associated with the pesticides exposure. Those living near the plantations are putting in high risk (Owens et al., 2010; Ye et al., 2013, as cited in IPES, 2016). Similar problems link to the organochlorine pesticide exposure which may lead to breast cancer, cryptorchidism and a greater prevalence of type 2 diabetes, among other pathologies (Arrebola et al., 2013, as cited in IPES, 2016). Furthermore, high-speed processing factories always ignore the hygiene of the meat production because they only focus on the profits, which generate the prevalent of food borne pathogens. What also cannot be disregarded is the emergence of zoonotic diseases, such as avian influenza and the Nipah virus, due to the amplification of livestock farming and the genetic homogenization of some animal population (Jones et al., 2013, as cited in IPES, 2016). These pathogenic organisms may directly infect humans, which cause damage to health. The frequent long distance transportation of animals have exacerbated the increased risks in terms of disease by other practices due to highly-specialized and intensive livestock supply chains (Liverani et al., 2013, as cited in IPES,2016).This is because of animals are confined in a narrow space for long time which increase the opportunity of the outbreaks of communicable disease between animals. Meanwhile, diseases always have incubation period that is the time before animals appear ill, which introduced pathogens to spread extending distances (Michael, 2007).Therefore, the current meat production system has various problems which will have negative effects on public health. It is unsustainable for manufacturer to remain this processing style.

In addition to the production issues, the disproportionate consumptions of meat may lead to other health consequences. The main problem is associated with the overconsumption of meat which may lead to nutrition transition. This is because of the meat-preference diet reduces the diversity of food types on human ingestion, which means they are lack of other nutrition from vegetables, grains and fruits. Simultaneously, the crops which fed to animals will compete with crops that directly consume by humans (Godfray, 2010). There will be insufficient amount of crops can provide to public which may cause micronutrient deficiencies. The long-term unhealthy diet will aggravate the problems of malnutrition, which will develop to obesity and chronic degenerative diseases (Korthals, 2011).The epidemic of obesity are becoming global issues that not only impact on developed countries but also effects developed countries (Qaim,2016).Meat contain excessive amounts of fat ,especially saturated fat, which rise the risk of cardiovascular diseases ,type 2 diabetes, colon, breast, and prostate cancer (Horrigan et al, 2002).According to Rohrmann (2013), the research shows that processed meat increase the possibility of early death, not only to cardiovascular diseases, but also great potentiality to cancer. That means processed meats are more toxic to the consumer which low in fiber but high in fat, sugar and salt contents. During the work and study, the increase consumption of fat and sugar may reduce the degrees of physical activity (Qaim, 2016). Therefore, it is unhealthy for consumer to continue this type of dietary habit. The imbalance consumption of meat may lead to irreversible diseases, even growth the rate of early mortality which is unsustainable.

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