Surely, everyone reading this forum has asked or wondered if eating meat affects the ecosystem. How much meat do we consume in general? 

The leader in meat consumption is a tiny, but very "meat" country - Luxembourg, whose inhabitant eats 135 kg of meat per year. After Luxembourg, the Americans eat 125 kg of meat a year, followed by Australia, whose average resident consumes 121 kg of meat a year. The least eaten meat is in India (3.2 kg), Bangladesh (4 kg) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (4.7 kg). All these figures may mean nothing for now, if we do not dig deeper and understand how much meat consumption harms nature and what it may lead to in the future.

Food production now accounts for a quarter of all anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases causing climate change, and 60% of them are related to livestock production. If we do nothing, by 2050, more than half of the greenhouse gas emissions will come from the food sector. Because of their desire to occupy new areas, some of the most valuable forests on the planet, the Amazon, are being cut down and disappearing into flames.

Entire species are disappearing from the face of the earth more than 1,000 times more often than without the human intervention. Since 1970, the number of wild animals has been halved, but the number of livestock has tripled. In 2009, for every person in the world, more than ten animals were killed each year. That means that, at that ratio, the meat industry killed 76 billion animals in 2018.

Other studies have linked red meat and processed meat consumption to an increase in obesity and an increased risk of developing type II diabetes.

According to Friends of the Earth, large amounts of meat in the diet, especially sausages, are very unhealthy because the processing process dramatically increases the number of saturated fats and salts in the meat. Experts do not call for complete renunciation of meat, but persuade to eat it no more than three times a week, limiting the weekly intake to 210 grams, which is about half a sausage a day.

After reading all this data, I was horrified at how serious the completely meat-eating situation could be and could not get the facts from the articles out of my head for days. Of course, no one is calling for an abrupt stop eating meat and start eating solar energy and the Holy Spirit, but trying to reduce its consumption will benefit not only nature but the man himself as well. Moreover, here the question may arise, "Well, how do you reduce that consumption? In my family, all dishes are prepared with the addition of meat or I myself really like the taste of meat", and to this question, I will try to answer in the next post with detailed recommendations.

In the meantime, share in the comments, how often do you eat meat or have you found a substitute for it?