Is it necessary for humans to eat meat at the scale we currently do?
Taking note of the sheer number of vegetarian and vegan diets practised everyday it is clear we do not need meat, even if we enjoy eating it. D’Silva, in her journal, written in 2000 for Compassion in World Farming Trust, wrote that cutting out “the costly inefficient factory farmed animal ‘protein converter’” would increase the amount protein we can get straight from the source. This would mean more people could be fed on less food, a positive step in reducing world hunger.
There are a number of potential health issues that may arise with the over-consumption of meat every day and for every meal; obesity has already become a big issue in America, and Europe is catching up. Nierenberg wrote in 2003 that eating meat every day is a more recent phenomenon — until the industrialisation of the process, meat was generally only eaten on special occasions and, even then, largely by the rich.