We're Eating Less Meat - Hooray?

It's taken about 3,500 years for high-density, sedentary societies to get to the point where animal protein is finally abundant enough to be eaten at every meal - and no sooner has this day arrived than our benevolent rulers have decided we'd be better off going back to 3 daily servings of gruel. Today the Times' food writer, Mark Bittman, celebrates the recent strides Americans have made in debasing their diets.

...our meat and poultry consumption will fall again this year, to about 12.2 percent less in 2012 than it was in 2007. Beef consumption has been in decline for about 20 years; the drop in chicken is even more dramatic, over the last five years or so; pork also has been steadily slipping for about five years.

He goes on to attribute much of the reason for this decrease to the troubled economy. And, apparently, we're supposed to think that's really great news - that our most nutrition-dense food product is being consumed less because it costs more. He then goes on to point out the obvious trend in people purposely eating less meat - and nothing could be better than that!

Over the course of the 3 decades that meat consumption has declined, obesity and diabetes among Americans have grown to epidemic levels. The apex of the American diet was probably the late sixties, when middle-class married women stayed home and cooked meals for the family: meals that would invariably consist of meat, a vegetable, and a starch. Desserts were often little bowls of jello or pudding or fruit cocktail. These meals might have featured too many carbs for some, and too many saturated-fats for others, but overall it was a well-balanced, nutritious meal.

Meat not only has protein but its fats provide essential nutrients as well (Vitamins A, D and E, for example). Some mothers even had the audacity to fry up beef or calve's liver in bacon grease and serve the liver topped with bacon and sauteed onions. It's hard to imagine any child managed to ever grow to maturity with the onslaught of protein and vitamins such a meal must have delivered. I still see liver sold in the supermarket, so obviously some mothers are still preparing it - perhaps DYFS should subpoena grocery-store purchase records to track these child abusers down and remove their children to safe vegan homes.

Reading the article's comments is a surreal experience - Who Are These People?

I read this article while eating my tofu, green bean, and brown rice stir-fry. I have been vegan for two years and have never felt better physically or morally. I applaud Mr. Bittman for the great piece- yes, people are choosing to eat less meat for all the right reasons: animal suffering, environmental degradation, and the horrendous health effects of a meat-based diet. I think we will continue to see the numbers drop as well as the incidence of lifestyle-related diseases.Chris Settino, Huntington NY.

Uh, not likely Chris - "the incidence of lifestyle-related diseases" has continued to go up while meat consumption has dropped - and that's what you'll continue to see. A small handful of people - those whose lives are under perfect control at all times - can indeed switch to a vegan diet that will allow them to feel satisfied and live healthily. But for most, avoiding meat will mean glombing down dreadful foods like cheese fries and mozzarella sticks and California rolls, or they will eat value-less ramen noodles or more likely pizza. But mostly, the constant scolding about eating meat has just frustrated the typical mother (fathers are still for the most part completely useless in this regard) who doesn't know what to do. Preparing a truly healthy meatless meal is quite daunting and not very tasty for children (who naturally avoid bitter tastes), and so they tend to get take-out, where the nutritional quality is exceptionally poor. The illuminati should be scolding parents to cook basic, well-rounded meals for their families, not shaming them into abandoning their traditional meals so that they can fail at preparing quinoa with roasted beets and yogurt.

Now it may be that the way meat is processed today - with all the hormones and antibiotics and fertilizers and soy grains - it's not as healthy as it should be. I don't know how true that is. But that seems like a simple matter to correct. If people were more confident about their meat diets - and these SWPL scolds turned their attention to cleaning up meat processing, then less pharmaceutical farming methods would no doubt prevail. But the goal isn't to make meat healthier - it's to eliminate it. Because, you see, meat eating is the province of troglodytes - i.e., lower-class, reactionary whites - not of the enlightened. And so eliminate it we must!