Green Meat?
Sustaining Eaters, Animals, and the Planet
Does a sustainable future include eating meat?
It seems an irrefutable truth that raising animals for meat has become unsustainable. Land is being eroded and destroyed, water resources overdrawn, greenhouse gases overemitted, and energy and crops unnecessarily diverted - all to satiate a growing and inequitable global overconsumption of meat. But is all meat unsustainable?
Sustainable food systems are multiple and varied and represent the diversity and complexity we see in the world. A range of socio-ecological and political-economic challenges and solutions are involved in the question of whether sustainable meat consumption exists. Green Meat? teases out some of that complexity in order to consider what roles animals and their products might play in the future as the world works towards new ways of living. Through an interdisciplinary lens, scholars and practitioners critically examine the multifaceted dimensions of "green meat": contributors confront the industrial production and slaughter of animals, ask what it means to be a carnivore, and consider the possibilities of regenerative animal agriculture and cellular agriculture. The book analyzes ongoing damage to the landscape, the climate, and water systems caused by conventional livestock production and looks at current debates about the place of meat in sustainable agri-food systems.
An expansive inquiry into food production practices, Green Meat? will inspire the kind of discussion and debate necessary to grapple with the complex issue of sustainability.
"Green Meat? provides compelling examples throughout of how meat can be sustainably produced and consumed, but as Abra Brynne discusses in the final chapter, how do we turn theory into practice in ways that slow climate change? Corporations and meat producers will continue to monitor profits and governments will support these companies. The real power lies with consumers and entrepreneurs, those advocating for change and working within existing structures to diversify the meat industry at all levels. Combining holistic grazing with industrial meat production and adding plant-based options at major fast food chains are two examples of changing attitudes and practices. Meat will remain an integral part of humans' diets for the foreseeable future, and Green Meat? provides realistic yet hopeful analyses of how we can consume meat more sustainably. We will need to incorporate all of these ideas when it comes to creating a greener meatscape-modernization, replacement, and renewal; this is the most powerful takeaway from the collection." HNet
"Bringing together a mix of scholars, practitioners, and advocates, Green Meat? highlights diverse perspectives on the future of animal food production. While it may not settle every argument about meat, it undoubtedly offers a valuable contribution to the debate." Garrett M. Broad, Fordham University and author of More Than Just Food: Food Justice and Community Change