12% of Americans eat half the nation's beef
phys.org
phys.org
One example is the whole plastic straws debacle. Let's virtue signal and blame the peasants for the plastic in the oceans. In reality more than 50% of the plastic that ends up in the oceans is from commercial fishing nets. Oh... Did you know that the paper straws that you are hailing as a solution have even more PFAs than your regular dumb straws?
Carbon emissions? Let's slap that on the suckers and demand that their cars do 100mpg while not emitting a single CO2 molecule. Meanwhile... How much emissions do the top 10-20 diesel powered large ships in the world put in the atmosphere?
This needs to be done systematically and at policy level considering a multitude of social factors. Telling everyone how bad beef is? Not helpful
We should absolutely fight their government abuses, but we can also push back at the consumer level. It's bad for them personally, as well as for the environment.
Even at best that would only fix a tiny fraction of the problem, and we do need to push at the corporate level. But unlike the stupid straw thing, reducing meat consumption really does have environmental benefits.
That demonstrates not only that governments are unable to solve the problems at the production side but also that they're choosing the minimum they can do to pretend they're making an effort, all while minimizing disruptions to the markets. I'd argue that the capitalism and the need for growth is the problem.
> In reality more than 50% of the plastic that ends up in the oceans is from commercial fishing nets
> This needs to be done systematically and at policy level considering a multitude of social factors. Telling everyone how bad beef is?
It's the same problem as with beef. If everyone insists on eating beef and fish, governments won't regulate the industries or remove their subsidies. The population has to want those regulations, otherwise it won't ever happen.
So the solution is the same as with beef. Switch to plant based diets personally, then demand changes on the political level.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance#Meat-eati...
Plant-based diets are the only way to feed 10 billion people sustainably.
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/917471
How Compatible Are Western European Dietary Patterns to Climate Targets?
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/21/14449
What humanity should eat to stay healthy and save the planet
> 12% of Americans eat half the nation's beef
Vs. the article's full title:
> How a mere 12% of Americans eat half the nation's beef, creating significant health and environmental impacts
Vs. the first para:
> A new study has found that 12% of Americans are responsible for eating half of all beef consumed on a given day, a finding that may help consumer groups and government agencies craft educational messaging around the negative health and environmental impacts of beef consumption.
The quality and quantity of actual facts heads downhill fast from there. Even ignoring the article's dreary left-wing political agenda...if a mentally-competent grown-up actually wanted beneficial (for the climate & environment) changes in American eating habits (vs. yet more performative activism, and sermons to the choir), then he might take into consideration the huge number of Americans who identify as being on the opposing side of that sensitive culture war issue, and plan accordingly.
I have yet to see any sign, anywhere, of that last bit.
If I eat a steak and cheeseburger in the same day, am I part of that group or am I never part of the group because I only eat beef 1x per week?
if you’re getting a burrito, this is quite possibly an offensive suggestion. people are eating slabs of beef in fancy restaurants, and you’re getting hassled over the ground up scraps wrapped in a tortilla.
but the whole thing feels disheveled. steak and brisket accounted for a third of consumption, but, what normal person lumps steak and brisket together? if i place my brisket on white bread with onion and pickle, is it now a mixed dish?
> The study, published in the journal Nutrients, analyzed data from the CDC's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which tracked the meals of more than 10,000 adults over a 24-hour period.
well that seems like it might impact things.
> The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) is a program of studies designed to assess the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the United States. The survey is unique in that it combines interviews and physical examinations.
A quick rule of thumb I have is that an 80/20 rule translates to the 50/1 rule after repeated application. For example, if 20% of a population has 80% of the wealth, and 20% of 20% of the population has 80% of 80% of the wealth, etc, then 20%^3=0.8% of the population (approximately 1%) should have 80%^3=51.2% (approximately 50%) of the wealth.
According to the ‘Global wealth Report 2021’ from Credit Suisse, 1.1% of the adult population owns 45.8% of the wealth (pretty close to an 80/20 distribution). So distribution of beef consumption is less lopsided than wealth distribution.
The study asks only about the previous day's diet.
Assume a population where everyone has the same diet of a milkshake randomly about once a week. If you ask the question asked by this study you will find similar results. About 12% of the people will report having a milkshake "yesterday" if everyone is uniformly consuming around one milkshake every 8.3 days.
One problem right here. This pernicious narrative that eating beef/meat is bad in absolute terms.
There is no negative impact of eating beef. The negative impact always comes from excess. When it comes to human impact on the environment this is compounded by the excessive population on this planet.
I would expect if you added up all the days and all the "I had a huge steak last night" responses, you'd get much closer to 50% of Americans eat half the beef...