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What is Wrong with Eating Meat?

As people recover from eating large quantities of meat over the festive season, we debate whether the pleasures of meat are worth the costs to health and the environment.

It's the first week of the new year, which means many people are recovering from consuming large quantities of meat over the festive season. In fact, people around the world are eating more meat than ever. The average American man now eats more than his own weight in meat every year. And in China meat-eating is rising sharply as people grow richer. But all this meat comes at a cost. The WHO has linked red and processed meats to cancer, and the intensive raising of livestock and the growing of the grains required to feed the animals is doing significant damage to the environment. So what should be done? Calls are coming for meat taxes and a move to more sustainable farming. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs are looking into lab grown meat and meat substitutes. But others point out that animal products can be part of a healthy diet and that livestock can eat things that people can't. Razia Iqbal and a panel of experts discuss whether the pleasures of eating meat are worth the costs.

(Photo: A butcher holding up cuts of meat during a pre-Christmas meat sale at a market in London. Credit: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images)

Available now

50 minutes

Last on

Sat 6 Jan 2018 12:06GMT

Contributors

Tara Garnett -听Head of the听Food Climate Research Network at Oxford University

Simon Fairlie听- Author of 'Meat: a Benign Extravagance'

Bruce Friedrich - Co-founder and executive director of听The Good Food Institute

Michael Lee -听Head of Sustainable Agriculture Sciences at听Rothamstead Research and Chairman in Sustainable Livestock Systems at the University of Bristol

Also featuring

Janet Riley, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs, the North American Meat Institute

Fuchsia Dunlop, Prize-winning writer on Chinese food

Broadcasts

  • Fri 5 Jan 2018 00:06GMT
  • Fri 5 Jan 2018 09:06GMT
  • Fri 5 Jan 2018 18:06GMT
  • Fri 5 Jan 2018 23:06GMT
  • Sat 6 Jan 2018 04:06GMT
  • Sat 6 Jan 2018 12:06GMT

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