Meat of the matter

Does meat-eating really do severe damage to your health and to the planet? The evidence suggests that the real danger comes from dairy and from processed foods

- VIR SANGHVI

Many thoughtful people in the West are beginning to worry about how much meat they eat. In many countries where vegetarians were once regarded as oddballs, restaurants are making a conscious attempt to cater to them.

But as the doubts about a mostly meat-based diet grow, important questions are beginning to be asked about how much damage the production of meat actually does to the planet and how exactly it does this damage. Nor is it clear if every bright and shining new trend that has been thrown up by the eat-more-plants campaign is here to stay.

Let's take the example of plant-based 'meat'. Around five years ago, it was being talked about as the next big thing. Companies that produced plant-based 'meat' saw huge interest from investors and share prices zoomed. Burger King (in the US) put a plant-based burger on the menu and its sales soared. The day is not far off, we were told, when the planet will be saved and public health will improve because we will all switch to plant-based 'meat' from the real thing.

Yeah, well, may be.

All the current evidence suggests that we may have overestimated the appeal of plant-based 'meat'. Beyond Meat, the company that pioneered the production of plant-based burgers and the like reported disappointing first quarter results. It declared a net loss of 100 million dollars and a significant drop in total revenue. Figures for the sector as a whole show that it is not growing as much as expected. And it looks as though plant-based 'meat' has had very little impact on US meat consumption. The figures suggest that it has either held steady or actually gone up.