Should we eat Meat? : : Evolution and Consequences of Modern Carnivory

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Call Number: 641.36 Sm
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	641.36 Sm	4-week checkout	On Shelf

1. Meat in nutrition -- Meat eating and health : benefits and concerns -- Meat and its nutrients -- Meat as a source of food energy -- High-quality protein and human growth -- Carnivory and civilizational diseases -- Diseased meat -- 2. Meat in human evolution -- Hunting wild animals : meat in human evolution -- Primates and hominins -- Meat consumption during the Paleolithic period -- Extinction of the late Pleistocene megafauna -- Hunting in different ecosystems -- Wild meat in sedentary societies -- Traditional societies : animals, diets and limits -- Domestication of animals -- Population densities and environmental imperatives -- Long stagnation of typical meat intakes -- Avoidances, taboos and proscriptions -- Meat as a prestige food -- 3. Meat in modern societies -- Dietary transitions : modernization of tastes -- Urbanization and industrialization -- Long-distance meat trade -- Meat in the Western dietary transition -- Transitions in modernizing economies -- Globalization of tastes -- Output and consumption : modern meat chain -- Changing life cycles -- Slaughtering of animals -- Processing meat -- Consuming and wasting meat -- Making sense of meat statistics -- 4. What it takes to produce meat -- Modern meat production : practices and trends -- Meat from pastures and mixed farming -- Confined animal feeding -- Animal feedstuffs -- Productivity efficiencies and changes -- Treatment of animals -- Meat : an environmentally expensive food -- Animal densities and aggregate zoomass -- Changing animal landscapes -- Intensive production of feedstuffs -- Water use and water pollution -- Meat and the atmosphere -- 5. Possible futures -- Toward rational meat eating : alternatives and adjustments -- Meatless diets -- Meat substitutes and cultured meat -- Protein from other animal foodstuffs -- Less meaty diets -- A large potential for rational meat production -- Prospects for change.
"Meat eating is often a contentious subject, whether considering the technical, ethical, environmental, political, or health-related aspects of production and consumption. This book is a wide-ranging and interdisciplinary examination and critique of meat consumption by humans, throughout their evolution and around the world. Setting the scene with a chapter on meat's role in human evolution and its growing influence during the development of agricultural practices, the book goes on to examine modern production systems, their efficiencies, outputs, and impacts. The major global trends of meat consumption are described in order to find out what part its consumption plays in changing modern diets in countries around the world. The heart of the book addresses the consequences of the "massive carnivory" of western diets, looking at the inefficiencies of production and at the huge impacts on land, water, and the atmosphere. Health impacts are also covered, both positive and negative. In conclusion, the author looks forward at his vision of "rational meat eating", where environmental and health impacts are reduced, animals are treated more humanely, and alternative sources of protein make a higher contribution. Should We Eat Meat? is not an ideological tract for or against carnivorousness but rather a careful evaluation of meat's roles in human diets and the environmental and health consequences of its production and consumption. It will be of interest to a wide readership including professionals and academics in food and agricultural production, human health and nutrition, environmental science, and regulatory and policy making bodies around the world." -- Publisher's description.

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5/5 submitted by angie. on July 21, 2021, 6:32pm Filled with facts. Love this!