You did say “I love meat, let me assure you”. That’s pretty proud.

Fair enough, I can see how you’d read it that way.

How can you be concerned about growing meat consumption in other countries? “Gee I sure hope people don’t act like me, that’d be concerning!”. Rules for thee.

Yep, it’s hypocritical, and I accept that. But it’s still a cause for concern, considering the broader context.

Over the past decades, we’ve seen a global rise in living standards. Especially in countries like China and India, which represent a significant chunk of our global population.

China’s poverty has fallen dramatically over the past decades. The average Chinese person is now much better off than they used to be. If you look at poverty figures, you’ll see a nice little ski-slope: back in 1990, effectively 98 percent of Chinese wereliving below the current poverty line. In 2019, that was down to below 16 percent.

Same thing for India: a dramatic poverty decline since the 1980’s.

If you’re at least somewhat aware of economics, you’ll understand that an increased standard of living also leads to more consumption: people can now afford cars, they can afford to travel, they can afford more food - which includes meat.

China is already the world’s largest meat consumer - but there’s a catch: they’re lagging in per-capita consumption. Experts predict that with increased urbanization and rising income levels, Chinese people are going to eat more and more meat. Because they can finally afford to do so.

Meat consumption is also on the rise in India. While there’s certainly plenty of Indians who don’t eat meat on religious grounds, actually over 70 percent of the population does eat meat.

So, see why I’m worried? Because they’re going down the same path towards overconsumption that we ware. Is it hypocritical to say to a no-longer-impoverished Indian or Chinese person that they shouldn’t want meat, cars or shiny new phones? Yes. But one can also hope that they learn from our mistakes in that regard. Overconsumption is going to have a profound impact on the scale of those two countries.

That’s not to mention the antibiotic crisis where treatment resistant bacteria are developing in animals due to overuse in livestock. Or the development of animal flus like birdflu, corona virus, swine flu, ebola etc etc, which emerge from consuming animals.

Those are certainly things I’m worried about. Especially considering recent history regarding covid. God only knows what meat production is like in some countries, and I shudder to find out. It’s only going to get worse if producers try to fill that increased demand.

You’re doing so much good, why not do the little extra step of going vegan? It’s so easy nowadays. Good for you, good for the planet, good for the animals. There’s no practical downside?

Well, honestly, at some point it gets really tiring to shoulder the burden of basically everything. I’m using a computer to type this, my previous post was on a phone. They both contain lithium, cobalt, coltan and other materials, a lot of which get mined with either exploited workers or outright slave labor. The clothes I’m wearing were probably made by an exploited worker in a sweatshop. And you can keep going on and on and on. There’s really no such thing as ethical consumption under capitalism, as any economics professor will point out.

So on some days, I like to enjoy a nice burger. Even if it might not be good for me or the planet.