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Americans still consume more meat than nearly anyone else in the world, but consumption is declining – and people’s reasons for eating less meat have evolved in recent years.
According to USDA figures , US meat consumption is on track to fall by more than 12% from 2007 to the end of 2012 – about 165.5 pounds per person this year, or just under half a pound a day. But why?
FoodNavigator-USA spoke to one of the founding partners of the Meatless Monday campaign, Dr. Robert Lawrence, a professor at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for a Livable Future.
When the Meatless Monday campaign was founded in 2003, the idea was to help cut saturated fat consumption to USDA-recommended levels, he says, a 15% reduction. Researchers knew most saturated fat in US diets came from animal sources, so this seemed like a sensible place to start.
“We realized that setting targets, realistic targets, would be a powerful incentive,”Lawrence says. “…It turns out that one day a week is about 15% of the week, so we came up with the idea of avoiding animal products one day a week.”
He says polling data show that the incentive is still growing, with 18% of Americans claiming to participate in the campaign, and awareness now at 50% of the population.
A powerful message
In early focus-groups, poorer consumers – most at risk of diet-related ill health – responded well to the health message, while wealthier consumers were more likely to be concerned about environmental impacts of meat production.
“For low and low-middle income groups, the most salient message was ‘if it would protect the health of my family, then yes, I’ll cut back’,” he says. “…The environmental message was presented early on, but was never quite as powerful as the health message.”
However, the Meatless Monday campaign has grown to include a wide range of issues, including problems of global food security; problems with devoting grain crops to animal feed; water scarcity; water security; animal welfare; and concerns about the impact of CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations) on rural American communities.
“You take a general public and you pick off those who are really concerned about public health, those who are concerned about the environment, rural communities, animal welfare, and so on. You add all those up and you are reaching a big sector of the American public,” says Lawrence.
Has US meat consumption peaked?
Some trend watchers have suggested that the cost of meat is a major factor too, particularly as pocketbooks are pinched, and animal feed prices are on the rise, pushing prices higher.
But while the drop-off in meat consumption has coincided with recession, Lawrence claims that health remains the number one reason that people are changing their habits.
Per capita beef consumption increased with higher incomes only until the 1970s, after which it remained relatively stable until the past four or five years, he says. In addition, in the United States, food spending accounts for a relatively small proportion of the household budget – about 10% of total disposable income. Instead, he says that meat consumption may have peaked, and is now receding to a level that is more culturally normative.
“I think the trend is toward a growing awareness that a high meat diet is a high risk diet, and a growing awareness that a high meat diet is unsustainable,” he says.
The cultural norm in the United States still values animal protein (from both meat and dairy) above other sources, with 65% of US protein coming from animals, compared to a global average of about 30% – and there are many low-income countries where animal protein accounts for just 6 or 7% of dietary protein.
Slowly Americans are beginning to understand that grains and vegetables are good sources of protein, says Lawrence, and that meatless options can be tasty too.
10 comments (Comments are now closed)
Meat Consumption Decline
I stopped eating meat over a year ago. When it smelled like a feedlot during cooking, I just got tired of paying for crap (literally. I have driven by feedlots and the crowding of the animals is disgusting. I will eat wild game when it's available, but I say "no, thanks" to crowded unhappy, fat animals. Also, cows in particular, being ruminants, should be fed on grass, not corn! The flavor is terrible and the meat is fattier with corn fed. And industry standards are pretty sick: cows are fed, among other things, a sludge made from the hay, droppings, and dropped feed from chicken farming; yuck! For my trouble, my cholesterol has dropped way down...
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Posted by Debbie
01 September 2012 | 17h04
BGH, GMO, JKD
Why? I agree with As Decline in Beef Consumption & Beef Isn't Tasty Anymore. Commercial beef has no taste compared to organically grown. GMO corn fed beef spitooee! Also do you trust the government to test for mad cow disease?
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Posted by J. Jones
30 August 2012 | 02h22
meatless in India
I am an American livingin India, and if you really want to learn to be vegetarian, you got to learn indian cooking. It is healthy, tasty, and good for your overall health.
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Posted by John
29 August 2012 | 06h49
Beef isn't tasty anymore
I have radically slashed my beef consumption over the last 10 years. The ONLY reason for this is that the beef available in normal U.S. grocery stores now tastes like cr@p... so why pay for it?
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Posted by Zigeuner Schnitzel
29 August 2012 | 05h52
Decline in Beef consumption
Why the decline,..Two basic reasons really, high cost and lack of trust in the meat products today. Personally I've gone over to eating more fish and chicken raised locally.
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Posted by Maineman
28 August 2012 | 20h07
Its called MONEY$$$
More likely they don't have the money with this recession we are still in.
Just more liberal lies!!!!
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Posted by chesterworth_paul@hotmail.com
28 August 2012 | 19h48
Declining meat comsumption
I stopped buying pork and beef because I can not longer afford it. It more of a bean economy than a meat economy
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Posted by stephen
28 August 2012 | 19h13
grass
All beef is not the same. Feedlot beef stuffed with GMO corn and anything else that will quickly add fat to the animal is totally different nutritionally from pasture raised grass fed beef.
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Posted by windy
28 August 2012 | 18h12
Decline in Beef consumption
I cut down to only one meal a week of beef a long time ago. You just cannot trust any more and that's it.
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Posted by warbaby
28 August 2012 | 16h52
Declining meat consumption
A welcome trend benefitting consumers individually in improved health status and as a community from reduced environmental pollutants as bio wastes and outgassing from cattle. Most importantly from making more feed grains available for starving populations at lower prices or, perish the thought , allow 15% grain- derived ethanol in fuel. The major losers are huge conglomerates of meat and grain producers that stand to few billion $. Ditto our bloated health care providers seeing fewer patients.
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Posted by Herman Rutner
27 August 2012 | 19h38
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