This presentation is a summarize of a journal article done by Charles et al.,2018. about the harmful effect of meat consumption on the environment. prentation done by: - Hatem BOUBLAT -GIAKOUMAKI Stella

1. Meat consumption, health,
and the environment
Work done by :
BOUBLAT Hatem
GIAKOUMAKI Stella
Framed by:
Prof. Vasilikiotis Christos
September 11th,2019

2. the work plan
• Main details about the article
• Introduction
• Present and future meat consumption
• Drivers of meat consumption
• Effects on health
• Effects on the environment
• Changing diets
• Conclusions

3. Main details about the article
 The title: Meat consumption, health, and the environment,
 The authors: H. Charles J. Godfray, Paul Aveyard, Tara Garnett, Jim W. Hall, Timothy
J. Key, Jamie Lorimer, Ray T. Pierrehumbert, Peter Scarborough, Marco Springmann, Susan
A. Jebb
 Review: Science
 impact factor: 41.04 in 2018
 Published on: 20 July 2018
 Corrected 12 December 2018

4. Introduction
The global average consumption of meat and
the total amount of meat consumed are rising
population growthaverage individual
incomes

5. • Meat is a good source of energy
• essential nutrients including protein and
micronutrients

6.  that total mortality rates are modestly higher for who have high intakes
of meat.
 increased risk of colorectal cancer with high intakes of processed meat.
 Meat produces more emissions per unit of energy compared with that of
plant-based
 Meat production is the single most important source of methane.
 Livestock uses more freshwater than any other human activity.
 Meat production can be an important source of nitrogen, phosphorus,
and other pollutants.

7. Policy-makers are increasingly grappling with the economic, health,
and environmental consequences of rising meat consumption.
What are the interventions might be
effective??

8. Present and future meat consumption
 Meat consumption at the population level can be estimated by using self-
reported dietary surveys.
Micha et al recently collated 266
individual dietary surveys from 113
countries in order to estimate the
global consumption
• The 2010 global average is:
- 42 g day unprocessed red meat
- 14 g day−1 processed meat
o Latin American (27 to 44 g day−1)
o Africa (7 to 34 g day−1) and
o Asia (4 to 7 g day−1

9. Drivers of meat consumptions
The reasons why we purchase and consume specific types of food is critical
if we seek to improve health and environmental outcomes.
Many factors, in addition to price, influence decisions to
consume meat.
 Biological factors: interact with a variety of
psychological determinants to shape diets
 Economics and political economy: influence
and allocates large amounts of money to advertising
and marketing and civil society organizations
claimed that this influenced eventual
recommendations

11. Fig 2. Growth of exports of soya feed for livestock from
South America to China

12. Fig.3: Predicted change in price and consumption of different food types after the
introduction of a globally uniform tax related to GHG emissions. Meat products are
some of the most strongly affected food types

13. Effects on health
• The main approach to estimating the impacts of meat
consumption on long-term health is through prospective
epidemiological.
• Meat is a good source of energy
iron, zinc, and vitamin B12 • It is possible to obtain a sufficient intake
of these nutrients without eating meat
• Approximately 35% of people in India
are vegetarians
• have a slightly more favorable
cardiovascular risk profile than that of
nonvegetarians

14. processed meat are associated with a moderate
increase in the risk for mortality from cardiovascular
disease
Fig.4 : The relative risk of cardiovascular death as a
function of average processed meat intake

15. Western countries
mortality rates are modestly higher in
participants who have high intakes of both red
and processed meat
The World Health Organization’s
International Agency for Research on
Cancer
(IARC)has classified processed meat as
carcinogenic to humans

16. Fig.5: The relative risk of colorectal cancer as a
function of average processed meat intake

17. Effects on the environment
• Meat can be considered as a valuable pollution factor
giving high GHG (CO2, methane, N2O).
• It’s the biggest source of methane and has also high
amount of CO2 emissions leading in the increase of
global warming.

18. GHG emissions from the production of different food types in
2005–2007 and projections for 2050

19. The three major GHG’s have quite different effects on
climate.

20. Effects on the environment
• High use of water is needed for agriculture with 1/3
going to livestock and mostly for their food.

21. Effects on the environment
• Decrease of plants after over grazing leading to
erosion and loss of biodiversity.

22. Effects on the environment
• Manure of animals can be harmful for humans, water
pollution, ecosystems but although can be used as fertilizers.
• Animals can transmit diseases by being food for other animals
(food chain).

23. Changing Diets
• We can change the habits by changing the food
selection of people.

24. Changing Diets
• There is no data about how to achieve it, but an
example is based on labeling of products.
• Based on the behavior, there is possibility to change
someone’s choice of eating meat (small meat portion,
different organized menus and buffets).
• Important concerns about manipulate people and
meat substitutes.

25. Conclusion
• The change of meat consumption affects the
environment, humans and economy.
• Some countries have decreased the consumption but
most of them not.
• So there is need of more research about how people
choose food based on social and economic criteria.
• Based on history, changing food habits is slow but
can be achieved.

26. Our analysis
• Decreasing meat consumption is an alternative way of
improving some environmental problems.
• Animals need big sources of food like grains, cereals and
pasture consuming energy that could be used for human
meatless food.
• It will take a big effort to change human habits, because
of the increasing population, complicated and different
personalities of each one.
• But in my opinion to achieve this change, people should
be informed about all this cost from young age so they
grow up with different behavior.