Meathooked: The History and Science of Our 2.5-Million-Year Obsession with Meat

Author: Marta Zaraska

To many of us, eating meat is something that we take for granted. If you have ever wondered whether we have always been this way, or what was the trigger for us to eat meat this book offers lots of insights into that question. Needless to say, this is a question that we will never know the answer for sure, but it is interesting to see the arguments that are made for when and why this happened.

While there may have been nutritious advantages, the author also makes the claim that eating meat indirectly may have also contributed to our modern civilization. The argument goes something like this. Eating meat, tubers and honey allowed us to ingest nutrients much faster. It also required a much smaller gut than what we would need if we only consumed shoots and leaves. The net result is that our gut shrank, giving us more room for a bigger brain. Since we didn't have to chow down large quantities of food, we had more time to socialize and innovate with our fellow human beings.

We seem to have come a full circle now and eating meat may very well be the death of our civilization.  It is hard to believe this claim from the author that in terms of global warming, a single burger is equivalent to driving an American car for 320 miles. The amount of natural resources consumed in producing meat is staggering. It apparently takes close to 1800 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef. Smaller animals consume less, but they are still a far cry from a pure vegetarian diet. There simply isn’t enough natural resources on earth for us all to consume meat at the same level as someone on a Western diet.

The author spends a considerable amount of time exploring the consumption of meat in developing countries like India. It is alarming to learn that, despite the current Indian Government’s ban on eating beef, the Indian population at large is rapidly increasing its intake of meat of all kinds. This same phenomenon is true in most of the countries around the world. So unless something changes, the demand for meat is going to continue to sky rocket. This will only create more inhumane conditions for the animals as we try to build “factories” to produce them with higher efficiencies. Hopefully the western nations can reduce their consumption to offset the increase in the rest of the world. But again, that may be more wishful thinking than reality.