Eating less beef is a climate solution. Here's why that's hard for some American men
Eating less beef is a climate solution. Here's why that's hard for some American men
Imagine thinking toxic masculinity is a bigger problem for this issue than beef/dairy subsidies and entrenched market forces. Nice distraction piece, NPR.
I honestly believe the two are related. I think big meat agro business is paying influencers to promote toxic masculinity and push nonsense like "plants emit toxic hormones" on social media.
Maybe, but that's just to keep demand anywhere near high enough to consume the products that subsidies ensure they will be producing anyways, so they can argue that the current subsidies are necessary.
Ok, but can we not acknowledge that this shit had an effect on the whole manly incel epidemic and those people are trying to take over the most poweful country on the planet and make sure those subsidies never end?
In 2006, when Malcolm Regisford was 10 years old, a Burger King commercial began playing on TVs across the country.
In it, a man in a restaurant looks at a small vegetarian dish, turns to face the camera, and bursts into song: “I am man, hear me roar!” The man flees the restaurant, denounces quiches and tofu — “chick food,” he sings — and quickly joins a throng of other singing men. They march through the streets with signs reading “I am man” and hamburgers held high. “The Texas double Whopper. Eat like a man, man,” a voice says.
Incels gave up on being "manly enough". Their whole schtick is that its "un-fair" that "only the manliest men get laid", and that they believe they deserve sex just for being born with a dick.
I'm not saying all the "red-pill"/"sigma-pill"/"incel" groups/narratives don't feed into eachother, but you've gotta realize these people are already in the minority. It's not their influence keeping the subsidies going, it's the public's wallets keeping demand just high-enough to "justify" the subsidies, and the fact that the subsidies are backed by decades of established law.
There is no point trying to reason with the die-hards that will keep on consuming long after increased prices drive the rest of us away from beef consumption. The subsidies that keep their bull-shit lifestyles affordable and convenient should be the focus of our efforts.
Let them waste more money on being single and lonely. Their pocket-books will shout at them louder and more convincingly than the rest of us ever could.
If it's purely on subsidies, then why, as stated in the article, are men consuming disproportionately more beef than women? Am I missing out on my secret man meat tax cut?
Yeah, i think that research might be missing some context...
Meat consumption by males goes up when you have a developed nation, it's almost purely economic, stupid to try to make this part of the culture war considering how small these communities are and their median ages.
"Economic factors explain the influence of human development since meat production costs are higher than plant-origin food production. Nations with more resources provide more options for individuals to buy and eat beef. The findings build on comparable studies with psychological traits and help rule out reference group effects as a possible reason."
Yes, you're missing that subsidies ensure the same amount of beef gets produced no matter the demand. In fact, that amount is set higher than demand. Demand is artificially increased due to the high availability and low prices resulting from these policies. Removing the subsidies would lower both Availability and Demand, as the lowered availability would increase prices.
TL;DR: Consumption gender ratios have NOTHING to do with the amount of beef that is being produced, nor, therefore, its impacts on the environment.
I can only restate the obvious so many times, and I HAVE already restated the facts on this at least twice prior to your question. Are you dense, or just insincere?
I made this decision a couple years ago. Gave up milk (switched to oat milk), but I still eat cheese and yogurt. I eat probably 20% of the red meat per year that I used to.
You don’t have to be a rabid vegan to make an impact.
This is such a good attitude! I cut all meat out of my diet a long time ago, and when I mention it, people often say something like "I'd love to but I couldn't commit to never having meat again".
You don't have to! It's amazing if you do, but you're still gonna make a sizable impact on the cause you care about if you reduce your intake.
It's odd that people don't have this with other issues, the idea of "reducing purchases of disposable plastic" or "buying fairtrade more" make total sense to people, but food is still often cashed out in these "all or nothing" terms.
I think a lot of people have a problem admitting that the consumption of certain things causes harm, which is why they turn it into an all or nothing decision. But I believe in the principle of harm reduction, and not letting perfect be the enemy of ‘better’. Or put in a more positive light, ‘every little bit helps’.
You don’t have to be a rabid vegan to make an impact.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/meat-production-tonnes?tab=chart&country=~OWID_WRL
the fact is that the industry continues to grow.
I can only control my own choices. But that fact is one of the main reasons I made that choice. It’s not sustainable.
tl;dr because of toxic masculinity
It's macho to eat lots of red meat, get high cholesterol, and die early from heart disease.
Nah, how about "fish is expensive and chicken is unethical"? Meanwhile, beef is subsidized all to hell, and NPR is focused on the wrong issue. We're long past the point where it looks like they are just running interference for industries that don't want to change.
Men who refuse to acknowlege there is a problem with beef aren't the ones having a problem with attempting to eat less of it. Its market forces all the way down; Less available and/or more expensive beef is what it will take to wean the die-hards.
Not eating beef is pretty easy. Lots of alternatives.
I dropped beef and pork and stayed with turkey and fish.
Found a bunch of plant based options to replace the beef texture too.
It's really just some stupid mindset about STEAK that many Americans have.
I'm not vegan, and not trying to say people should be vegan. I love me a good steak, but I was out with some vegan friends, and we went to a vegan restaurant. They served me something that was doing an excellent impression of a steak. Good enough that if I knew which various plant protein they were using, I'd make that at home.
Burgers they have down these days, and eating veggies burgers allows me to have more meals a week without meat. Same for most sausages. I don't know how they did it, but I had a vegan brat that had a snappy "skin."
Not all Americans eat beef equally, data shows. Last year, Rose and his colleagues published a study looking at U.S. government data of the diets of more than 10,000 Americans. They found that on a given day, 12% of Americans account for half of all beef consumption. That 12% was disproportionately men.
I'm confused by this because I want it to mean the same 12% all the time, but I suspect they mean that it is a different 12% from one day to the next.
“Many men do reduce their meat consumption or are willing to,” says Joel Ginn, food and psychology researcher at Boston College, “but there are hurdles that they've had to overcome.”
Manly men advertising meat -- and Joe Rogan??? I guess all kinds of guys what to be oh so manly, but when I think of macho men, he's just not on that list.
Seeing someone in your close personal circle, or celebrities like athletes, make a behavior change can be an important piece of the puzzle, says Daniel Rosenfeld, psychology and food researcher at UCLA. “The way to get some people to eat less meat is to get other people to eat less meat,” he says.
Personally, both myself and my better half enjoy the newer fake meat burgers. They really are a satisfying way to get a 'manly' burger.
The more obsessed you are with the trappings of manhood the more everyone knows you're faking it
Hell who can afford beef anymore?
this is warmed-over poore-nemecek 2018. that's the primary basis for the claims about the climate, but the methodology of that study is fucked, and it's a disservice to actual climate science to keep touting this meta"study" that misuses its source material and myopically focuses on distilling data instead of understanding the complexity of our agricultural systems. the textile industry's water use, land use, and emissions, i guarantee, are being counted in poore-nemecek as emissions from beef. i didn't pull out the data from the separate reference to water use, but i will eat my hat if that doesn't, as well.
eating less beef has not been effective at stopping the growth of the beef industry for all the people who have done so. we need a real solution, and trying to influence individual consumer choice isn't working.
edit: down voting doesn't change the truth