What is Wrong with Eating Meat?
As people recover from eating large quantities of meat over the festive season, we debate whether the pleasures of meat are worth the costs to health and the environment.
It's the first week of the new year, which means many people are recovering from consuming large quantities of meat over the festive season. In fact, people around the world are eating more meat than ever. The average American man now eats more than his own weight in meat every year. And in China meat-eating is rising sharply as people grow richer. But all this meat comes at a cost. The WHO has linked red and processed meats to cancer, and the intensive raising of livestock and the growing of the grains required to feed the animals is doing significant damage to the environment. So what should be done? Calls are coming for meat taxes and a move to more sustainable farming. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs are looking into lab grown meat and meat substitutes. But others point out that animal products can be part of a healthy diet and that livestock can eat things that people can't. Razia Iqbal and a panel of experts discuss whether the pleasures of eating meat are worth the costs.
(Photo: A butcher holding up cuts of meat during a pre-Christmas meat sale at a market in London. Credit: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images)
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Contributors
Tara Garnett -听Head of the听Food Climate Research Network at Oxford University
Simon Fairlie听- Author of 'Meat: a Benign Extravagance'
Bruce Friedrich - Co-founder and executive director of听The Good Food Institute
Michael Lee -听Head of Sustainable Agriculture Sciences at听Rothamstead Research and Chairman in Sustainable Livestock Systems at the University of Bristol
Also featuring
Janet Riley, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs, the North American Meat Institute
Fuchsia Dunlop, Prize-winning writer on Chinese food
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Broadcasts
- Fri 5 Jan 2018 00:06GMT成人快手 World Service Online, Australasia, Americas and the Caribbean, UK DAB/Freeview & Europe and the Middle East only
- Fri 5 Jan 2018 09:06GMT成人快手 World Service except News Internet
- Fri 5 Jan 2018 18:06GMT成人快手 World Service Australasia
- Fri 5 Jan 2018 23:06GMT成人快手 World Service East and Southern Africa, South Asia, West and Central Africa & East Asia only
- Sat 6 Jan 2018 04:06GMT成人快手 World Service except Australasia & News Internet
- Sat 6 Jan 2018 12:06GMT成人快手 World Service except Americas and the Caribbean, East and Southern Africa, News Internet & West and Central Africa
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The Real Story
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