The American habit of eating large amounts of meat is a major threat to human health, the environment, small communities and farmers, according to speakers at recent conference at the Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH) entitled "Eating for the Future: Can Public Health Rise to the challenge?"
Scientists from diverse fields met at JHSPH to discuss whether humans need meat in the quantity it is consumed in the United States, how our levels of meat consumption affect American health and whether meat production actually pollutes our environment.
The conference featured lectures by four speakers from diverse backgrounds who painted a picture of the United States addiction to meat as unhealthy and harmful.
The first speaker at the conference was Center for A Livable Future (CLF) Director Dr. Robert Lawrence, who spoke about the tremendous public health ramifications of the American addiction to meat, which results mainly from meat's high saturated fat content.
Research has provided a strong connection between high saturated fat intake and cardiovascular diseases, which can lead to heart attacks.
Studies have also suggested that high saturated fat in a person's diet places them at higher risk for adult onset diabetes and cancer.
Lawrence also spoke on how raising beef on grain is an inefficient use of grain, taking about seven pounds of grain to produce one pound of beef.
In addition, he mentioned that the waste produced by animals in what are commonly termed 'factory farms' frequently has a negative impact on the environment in the area. In total, these farms produce 575 billion pounds of animal waste annually.
Maryland poultry factory farms, for example, have been cited as a major polluter of the Chesapeake Bay.
Dr. Sidney Mintz, a professor emeritus of Hopkins' anthropology department, followed Lawrence with an anthropological account of America's obsession with meat.
She presented the current evidence that meat eating is not an instinctive behavior, but a learned one. The increase in meat consumption in America may be explained by the fact that military personnel in World War II were served meat three times a day, explained Mintz.
The third speaker, Dr. Benjamin Caballero, dealt with the question of whether or not humans need animal protein in their diet. Caballero, a professor and director for the Center for Human Nutrition at JHSPH, said that animal protein isn't specifically required by the body.
Coordinator of the Toronto Food Policy Council Dr. Wayne Roberts was the last to present and focused on the effect of industrial meat production on small communities and family farmers, discussing how both are harmed by factory farming practices of large corporations.
The CLF was created with the mission "to develop and disseminate information and to promote policies for the protection of health, the global environment, and our ability to sustain life for future generations," according to the Center's Web site.
In one of their current projects, the CLF has partnered with Meatless Mondays, a program that encourages people not to eat meat on Mondays as a first step in reducing overall meat consumption.
On campus, the diet choice for students with regard to meat is diverse. Many students eat a traditionally American amount of meat, such as sophomore David Burgess who said "I eat meat at every meal." Others don't feel meat is a necessity but eat it frequently, such as sophomore Karen Lopez, who said "I don't need to eat meat every day. I do eat meat every day, but it's not a necessity."
In sharp contrast to these views on meat consumption are the views of senior Michael Brown, who is informally know as "Vegan Mike" by his friends and acquaintances.
Brown summarized his views on meat eating, saying "the reason I don't eat meat is that I think that raising animals in a factory farm environment increases unnecessary suffering. I'm also a big fan of the fact that my diet is cholesterol free." Brown, who has been a vegan since his freshman year, and a vegetarian since he was 15 years old, also said that "the laws regarding free range chicken are ridiculously loose," when asked about the classification developed to give consumers an alternative to factory- farmed livestock. While he supports attempts to reduce the suffering of animals that are farmed for meat, he is still fundamentally opposed to the slaughter of animals for food, saying "I don't feel that there is a humane form of killing."
