Traditional Meat is the New Cigarette
The sordid meat industry functions very similarly to the cigarette industry. Just like the cigarette industry, the meat industry funds its own research, markets to youth, and uses catchy slogans and ads. The famous cigarette brand once said, “Winston tastes good like a cigarette should!”. The meat industry has similarly imprinted in our minds, “Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner”. Although, I would argue that the meat industry is even worse than the cigarette industry. For instance, the U.S. government subsidizes the meat (and dairy) industry with $38 billion a year. The fruit and vegetable industries receive a fraction of that, totaling $17 million a year. Even worse, the meat (and dairy) industry imposes a staggering $414 billion a year on society through various monetary burdens, including higher taxes, diminished home values, and health insurance premiums. Additionally, meat (and dairy) industry lobbyists have influenced some states to pass libel laws. These laws make it simpler for the meat (and dairy) industry to prosecute for punitive and economic damages against activists and whistleblowers who criticize their products to the public.
Although smoking cigarettes is obviously implicated in several diseases (most notably lung cancer), eating meat is just as bad, if not worse. For instance, consuming meat is associated with many chronic diseases, including heart disease, hypertension, obesity, diabetes, and cancer. However, meat is much worse than cigarettes in other ways. For instance, meat is tied to some of the worst infections that have plagued humanity, such as HIV, Ebola, SARS, the swine flu (H1N1), and possibly even COVID-19. In addition, the meat industry is a significant source of food and water contamination. When animals are slaughtered, their bowel contents may mix with the parts consumers want to eat. Bacteria such as E. coli, campylobacter, listeria, and salmonella originate primarily from animal feces. Because animals are intensively confined, they are fed antibiotics to prevent inevitable infections. Greater than 75% of E.U. and U.S. antibiotics are used in agriculture. This reckless use of antibiotics contributes to antibiotic resistance.
It is remarkable how many problems intersect with animal agriculture. The most obvious individual solution is implementing a plant-based diet (PBD). Plant-based diets include veganism, vegetarianism, reducetarianism/flexitarianism, and pescetarianism. All of these PBDs would dramatically lessen an individual’s involvement with factory farming. Although, fish are often raised in “aquaculture,” which in its worst form is the marine equivalent of factory farming. Nonetheless, PBDs can help prevent and maybe even treat many chronic illnesses, including heart disease, hypertension, obesity, type II diabetes, and cancer. Additionally, following a PBD can partially or entirely absolve one from the viruses, antibiotic resistance, and food and water contamination that the meat industry perpetuates.
Beyond individual solutions, our society must consider handling meat as it has with cigarettes. Product warnings would be helpful. Like cigarettes say on the package that they cause illness, the same should be done for meat. Unknown to most, the five largest tobacco corporations have to pay about $9 billion every year to state governments as compensation for the cost of the illnesses their products cause. The same should occur with meat. The meat industry should have to pay state governments for the damages incurred by the diseases and conditions caused by their products. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that collective society will adopt plant-based diets (PBDs). I have made an unfortunate realization in the last five years. Given a choice between choosing an action that benefits society or choosing the activity that offers momentary taste pleasure, the individual will almost always choose the latter. This latter choice comes at a high cost to human health, the environment, and animals. However, there remains another possible solution. Perhaps society can have their meat and eat it too. Fortunately, a burgeoning industry known as “cultivated meat” is set to disrupt the traditional meat industry as we know it. Cultivated meat takes a biopsy from an animal and grows it outside the body. This technology, although not ideal, would drastically limit the environmental and animal harms caused by the meat industry. Factory farming would become obsolete by eliminating the animal from meat production. In addition, I think that traditional meat industry subsidies should stop and that cultivated meat, fruit, and vegetable industries should receive the subsidies instead. Most importantly, we must stigmatize meat like society has cigarettes if we want a brighter and healthier future for all generations.
I recently wrote a book titled Meat: The New Cigarette that features much of this information in more detail.
Disclaimer: Please discuss with your doctor before implementing anything mentioned in this article and the book it is based on.
Disclaimer: All opinions expressed in this article and the book it is based on are the author’s ideas. These opinions do not represent any official position of the Christian Animal Rights Association.