this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2024

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People working in the meat industry: could/can you actually feel the effects of the rise of veganism of the last ~10 years? How (much) did it affect the area you work in? (lemmy.world)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 106 points 7 months ago (3 children)

I'm not working in the meat industry, but in the german food industry. German meat consumption has gone significantly down, but the most "feelable" effect would be that vegan and/or vegetarian options are now a must for every restaurant owner who knows what he is doing. A few years ago it was normal for restaurants to have no vegan option on the menu or for them to be kind of crappy. Now there are so many vegetarians that you will run into problems with your restaurant if your vegetarian option is crappy - because those vegetarians will complain to their family and friends and lead them into other restaurants.

(and yeah, there are still restaurants left without good options for vegetarians. Your region also might play a role - but chances are that you can find a pizza without meat on the menu that is not a Margherita)

[–] [email protected] 34 points 7 months ago (1 children)

the most “feelable” effect would be that vegan and/or vegetarian options are now a must for every restaurant owner who knows what he is doing.

As a life-long lacto-ovo vegetarian, this is one of my favourite things. There are so many options now. When I was a kid, the options were few, and you never went out to restaurants (unless they were super specific weirdo niche vegetarian/vegan restaurants) because there weren't any options for you.

MacDonalds had a vegetarian burger here for a while, but they discontinued that after a while because it wasn't popular. Max, another fast food chain here, now has like three different vegan patties, and one vegetarian one, and there are dozens of burger/whatever variations. It's amazing and makes me feel like a normal person.

I was never a huge fan of the gluten free/vegan/whatever trends, but I'm so glad for the positive effects they had on food culture as a whole.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It helps a lot for the burgers that there are now actually good fake meat options. Before the Impossible burger you basically had to lie to yourself to think fake meat was equivalent.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I’ve never had a “real” burger is the thing, so personally I really don’t care. I think I even prefer the veggie patties with whole peas and stuff in them, they’re texturally more interesting. The impossible burger isn’t that nice in my opinion.

Max has four types. There’s an impossible-burger-esque one. There’s one that’s like a battered chicken thing. There’s one that’s somewhat reminiscent of falafel, and finally a halloumi one. They’re all okay.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I actually stopped going to Burger King when they started doing Impossible patties because they nuked their veggie patty.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

I can see that. It's overpriced and boring. I'm really fond of the falafel-esque patty that Max has.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Even in the US, which consumes a pretty unhealthy amount of meat per capita, you can see that impact somewhat. Vegan options are still iffy compared to vegetarian ones, but there are definitely more places I can eat now than ever. The suburbs aren't nearly as good as cities, but that's to be expected, I think. Even compared to a few years ago, it's better - it's not just a sad plate of lettuce with no dressing or dry pasta.

I won't say that people's meat consumption is down here because data doesn't back that up, but at least those of us who don't eat it are finally getting a few choices.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago

Bonefish grill. There are no good vegetarian options at bonefish grill. So every company outing we have, we don't go there anymore, even though it's the closest place.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

It seems like any place with a decent chunk of money will also be a place with more veg-friendly restaurants.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

When even Culver's has a veggie burger, the times are changing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Here it is graphed out by year.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/525324/meat-per-capita-consumption-germany/#:~:text=Germans%20consumed%20around%2052%20kilograms,annually%20going%20lower%20and%20lower.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (5 children)

Volume is pretty rigorously tracked by regulatory bodies that are responsible for food safety.

The US’s data is here: https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/livestock-and-meat-domestic-data/

I’d copy and paste some stuff into this thread, but it looks like some parts of this site are under maintenance right now. That said, others have charted the data. https://www.agweb.com/opinion/drivers-us-capita-meat-consumption-over-last-century

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Woah, looks like chickens were our friends until the 1940s when people started eating the friends

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The 1940-1950 era is the rough timeframe when the factory farming of poultry took off, especially once antibiotics started being widely used to group even more chickens together in those factory conditions. e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibiotic_use_in_the_United_States_poultry_farming_industry#History_of_federal_policy_on_antibiotic_use_in_livestock

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

There’s a number of factors, including a concerted effort by the USDA to drive chicken consumption.

The Search Engine podcast did a two part episode about chicken bones that discusses the rise of chicken as a food product: https://pjvogt.substack.com/p/why-are-there-so-many-chicken-bones

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Lamb is at 0 lbs/y? I find that and turkey to be suspiciously low

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

I believe it. I'm not American but Canadian (our diets tend to be similar) and before I became vegetarian I literally had never once eaten lamb, and turkey was only a Easter / Thanksgiving / Christmas meal. Keep in mind the number probably isn't 0 but close to it, it's just hard to see on the graph.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

That's actually quite an insane chart. So the average american eats around 125kg of meat a year? France is at 83kg, Italy at 81kg and Canada at 82kg.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_meat_consumption

Current german recommendations for healthy eating are saying that around 300 grams of meat a week are the max and Americans really seem to eat that every day.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

Apparently so, but there is a wide variance in American diets. I wouldn’t be surprised if the biggest meat eaters are skewing that data quite a bit.

It’s not exact, but I just did a tally of the meat I’ve bought in the last year and it’s about 20 lbs. I could’ve forgotten something, and had a handful of meals out, so I’ll round up to 25lbs to be safe. Totally anecdotal, but 9% of the average listed here. I know I’m on the low end, but for most of my family I’d be pretty shocked if they ate over 3lb a week, or ~150lbs a year.

I live in the south and it seems like about half the people I meet eat more along the lines of what seems normal to me for someone eating meat, anywhere from 4-10x a week. A lot of those outside of dinners can be very small amounts of meat.

The other half unfortunately seem to be the type that consider it a tough challenge when they stop eating meat at every single meal, and it’s often at least 30% of their meal. It’s wild.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Any idea what caused the dip from 04 to 09?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

There might be a number of factors, but most notably, beef prices started to rise and people switched to other meats, also 2003, 05 and 06 marked the first 3 documented outbreaks of mad cow disease in the US.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Turns out the easiest way to get people to not eat meat is to just raise the prices

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

The deadly brain eating disease was also a good turn off when it became new to North America.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I see the 2008 decline in beef.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Thanks to Oprah

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I'd think the financial crash. What did Oprah say?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Oprah did a very controversial, very public show about mad cow disease, implying it was in America, and led to a big lawsuit.

There are multiple sources of info, but for some easy listening, checkout the podcast 'Maintenance Phase' which did a 2 part feature on it.

Is that actually what we're seeing reflected in the graph? Mmm, I'm not convinced. But it's definitely true that she did hurt the beef industry in America.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Wow, thanks, that was interesting! It seems like people kind of gave up around 2017. Or some other indirect factor.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (4 children)

TIL Americans fucking loooove chicken

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

I would eat fried chicken every day if it wouldn't kill me.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

I’d honestly take chicken over beef just about any day. I’m committing chicken genocide.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Chicken wings are so hot right now

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

The ~~consolation~~ consolidation of meat packing has had a significant effect on producers. Possibly greater than fewer people eating meat. For those that can try to buy your meat from a local farmer or rancher. It will taste better and is more ethical.

Fuck JBS, Cargill, National Beef and Tyson.

https://prospect.org/power/big-four-meatpackers-crushing-small-ranchers/

Edit

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Consolidation perhaps?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Yeah, my thumbs don't know how to spell

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

how can I help as a vegetarian?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

Farm fesih eggs. And boy they taste so much better than the store bought ones. Also all the farmers market veggies you can get you hands on. Just make sure you are buying from real farms. I have seen a few people buy just regular wholesale cases of veggies and selling them a local farm fresh.

Also thank you so much for not just saying I am a terrible person for advocating for independent rancher. I truly just want to see a better way of getting everyone fed.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

If you're a convert, your cheat days could be with local beef. If you don't do cheat days (idk if those are a thing; I've been vegetarian since birth), then I have no clue.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

redacted

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