Should We Eat Meat Evolution and Consequences of Modern Carnivory

Vaclav Smil 지음

Wiley-Blackwell 2013년 03월 18일 출간

작품소개

책소개

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 quot;massive carnivoryquot; 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 ldquo;rational meat eatingrdquo;, 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.

목차

Preface ix1 Meat in Nutrition 3Meat Eating and Health: Benefits and Concerns 4Meat and its nutrients 6Meat as a source of food energy 11High-quality protein and human growth 17Carnivory and civilizational diseases 20Diseased meat 242 Meat in Human Evolution 31Hunting Wild Animals: Meat in Human Evolution 33Primates and hominins 35Meat consumption during the Paleolithic period 39Extinction of the late Pleistocene megafauna 42Hunting in different ecosystems 45Wild meat in sedentary societies 49Traditional Societies: Animals, Diets and Limits 51Domestication of animals 53Population densities and environmental imperatives 56Long stagnation of typical meat intakes 59Avoidances, taboos and proscriptions 63Meat as a prestige food 663 Meat in Modern Societies 71Dietary Transitions: Modernization of Tastes 72Urbanization and industrialization 74Long-distance meat trade 77Meat in the Western dietary transition 81Transitions in modernizing economies 84Globalization of tastes 86Output and Consumption: Modern Meat Chain 89Changing life cycles 91Slaughtering of animals 94Processing meat 98Consuming and wasting meat 102Making sense of meat statistics 1074 What It Takes to Produce Meat 113Modern Meat Production: Practices and Trends 117Meat from pastures and mixed farming 118Confined animal feeding 122Animal feedstuffs 127Productivity efficiencies and changes 135Treatment of animals 141Meat: An Environmentally Expensive Food 145Animal densities and aggregate zoomass 147Changing animal landscapes 150Intensive production of feedstuffs 155Water use and water pollution 160Meat and the atmosphere 1685 Possible Futures 177Towar

출판사 서평

“Summing Up: Recommended.& Upper-division undergraduates and above.”& (Choice, 1 January 2014)

작가정보

저자(글) Vaclav Smil

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Dr Vaclav Smil is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Manitoba. His interdisciplinary research interests encompass a broad area of energy, environmental, food, population, economic, historical, and public policy studies. Dr Smil has published in more than 30 books, over 400 papers, and contributed to more than 30 edited volumes