Meat Less: The Next Food Revolution

by David Julian McClements

Reducing the amount of meat in our diet would have major environmental benefits, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, deforestation, and biodiversity loss. Moreover, it would have wide-ranging ethical benefits by decreasing the huge number of livestock animals confined and killed each year for food. For consumers, there may also be health benefits from a meat-less diet, provided it was carefully planned. Advances in modern science and technology, including plant-based, microbial, lab-grown, and insect meats, are revolutionizing the food industry and making it easier for consumers worldwide to maintain a meat-less diet. In Meat The Next Food Revolution I outline my own journey as a food scientist who became a vegetarian in solidarity with my daughter. In writing this book I take the viewpoint that there are no easy answers and that everyone must make the decision to eat meat or not based on their own values. The first chapters examine the impact of meat consumption on the environment, human health, and animal welfare, including the important questions of how much does eating meat really contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, and biodiversity loss, what are the ethical implications of raising and killing animals for food, and the impact of reducing meat consumption on human nutrition and health. I then discuss some of the new technologies that are being developed to create alternatives to meat, including plant-based meat, cultured (lab-grown) meat, microbial meat, and insect meat. I present the science behind these new technologies and their potential for making a difference to climate change and human health. In the final chapter, I discuss why I remain a vegetarian and have decided to dedicate the rest of my scientific career to finding sustainable and healthy alternatives to meat, presenting my vision of the human diet in 2050.

272 pages, Paperback

Published March 25, 2023

Reviews

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 2 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

Imagine if you were involved in a start up that grows meat from cells; if you wanted to put a propaganda piece out there you would want to target flexitarians, vegetarians, and vegans all together, making sure not to alienate any. And so what you would have is this piece, where the author spends a lot of time telling you about the shortcomings of those three ways of eating and how those shortcomings can be solved with this new product he is involved in: cell-grown meat.

Honestly, it got silly when he was using questionable science/research to give reasons why going vegan is just as unhealthy as eating animal products (and yes, we've seen all these reasons disproved, so it felt very disingenuous). The first 3/4 of the book is a discussion of the three, with a clear emphasis on vegetarian diets. The rest of the book is a discussion of how these new meats being grown in labs will revolutionize the food industry, including (oddly enough) health.

It was, at first, hard to understand what the book was trying to say since it spent so much time discussing the pros/cons of everything from carnivore to low fat plant based. But then it became obvious that this must be more about being a promotion piece to get people over the idea of growing meat in a lab (which I fully agree with will help the planet, animals, and people). It's about saying, "hey, the way you are eating now isn't the best, here's a solution."

If you are curious about lab-grown meat, skip the first 3/4 of the book. You'll save yourself a lotf wasted time, meandering and questionable research studies/logic. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.