How Can We Improve The Way We Consume Meat?

What areas need improvement in the way we consume and produce meat today? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.

Answer by Camas Davis, Executive Director, Good Meat Project; Author of Killing It, on Quora:

In terms of production, I believe we need to raise and slaughter the animals we raise for food more humanely. There are many organizations working to codify and promote standards for this: Certified Humane, Animal Welfare Approved, Global Animal Partnership, etc. The work of Temple Grandin has all been in service of this.

But we also need to think of animals as part of a regenerative agriculture system, instead of a regressive, industrialized agricultural system which is what we currently are dealing with. We shouldn’t raise animals for food in a vacuum (i.e. the industrial model). We need to think about the long term relationship between the soil, the climate, the animals, and the plants and we humans. Monoculture without the use of grazing animals means that the soil is not well taken care of, and, over time, cannot support life. Regenerative farming involves animals, through grazing and the use of manure, in order to create rich, healthy soils that can support many different kinds of crops. This results in soils that have the potential to help restore ecosystem and, in a roundabout, complicated manner, may even contribute to carbon capture.

Zero environmental impact in our food system is unattainable. We should be asking how we can produce food with as little impact as possible. The thing that gets missed in this debate is the difference between mismanagement of land and animals vs. restorative management of land and animals, which holds the potential to nourish us. Some great introductions to these concepts can be found in just about anything Nicolette Niman has written, but especially her book “Defending Beef.” Also, check out Alan Savory and the Savory Institute. These are just a few of many great resources.

Since, as a society, we aren’t willing to pay farmers to graze their land, we should pay those farmers for the surplus meat from their herds so that those farmers can keep doing the good work of saving the planet through regenerative farming.

In terms of consumption, eating less or no industrialized meat certainly helps to mitigate the damage we are doing to our planet, but it does nothing to figure out how we can raise food and use grazing animals to heal our planet. In my opinion it’s not the most creative solution. Eating better meat and eating less meat, in tandem is the answer.

We should also be willing to eat every part of the animal for food. If we only demand pork chops and bacon but are not willing to eat the heart, the head, the cheeks, the skin, or any of the muscles that require longer cooking times, then producers have to produce that many more animals to meet our demand. The industrial model thrives on this equation. And since the industrial model is good at figuring out purposes for all the parts we don’t eat, it works well for them.

We should also be willing to eat older animals. We slaughter our animals for food at a very young age. There is no reason for this, other than we have been trained to think that young meat is better, because it doesn’t taste too much like meat, and it is tender, therefore it doesn’t challenge is in the kitchen. Eating older animals means they can be utilized for longer in a regenerative agriculture model, and it also means you are embracing flavor (i.e. fat) and texture, and you are embracing learning how cook, which, in my opinion can only be a good thing.

We might also think about what kind of farmers we want to support. Which food production system we want to support. And we might also think, as consumers, about what it means to choose to not know how the meat we eat gets to our tables. Not knowing means supporting a system of production that is detrimental to the health and well being of the animals we eat, of our own bodies, and of the planet we call home.

On a practical level, in our kitchens, we should think of meat like we used to think of it, before the industrialization of meat production: it’s a special occasion ingredient, and accent to our meals. Not a 24/7, 99 cent, god-given right for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But we think of it this way, because industrialized meat is cheap (i.e. subsidized).

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