Should we eat meat? : evolution and consequences of modern carnivory / / Vaclav Smil

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910808246703321
• Autore: Smil Vaclav
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Chichester, West Sussex, : Wiley-Blackwell, c2013
• ISBN: 1-118-27871-2; 1-299-31392-2; 1-118-27870-4
• Edizione: [1st ed.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (278 p.)
• Disciplina: 641.3/6
• Soggetti: Meat - Health aspects; Meat industry and trade; Vegetarianism
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Should We Eat Meat?: Evolution and Consequences of Modern Carnivory; Copyright; Contents; Preface; 1 Meat in Nutrition; Meat Eating and Health: Benefits and Concerns; Meat and its nutrients; Meat as a source of food energy; High-quality protein and human growth; Carnivory and civilizational diseases; Diseased meat; 2 Meat in Human Evolution; Hunting Wild Animals: Meat in Human Evolution; Primates and hominins; Meat consumption during the Paleolithic period; Extinction of the late Pleistocene megafauna; Hunting in different ecosystems; Wild meat in sedentary societies; Traditional Societies: Animals, Diets and LimitsDomestication of animals; Population densities and environmental imperatives; Long stagnation of typical meat intakes; Avoidances, taboos and proscriptions; Meat as a prestige food; 3 Meat in Modern Societies; Dietary Transition: Modernization of Tastes; Urbanization and industrialization; Long-distance meat trade; Meat in the Western dietary transition; Transitions in modernizing economies; Globalization of tastes; Output and Consumption: Modern Meat Chain; Changing life cycles; Slaughtering of animals; Processing meat; Consuming and wasting meatMaking sense of meat statistics; 4 What It ; Takes to Produce Meat; Modern Meat Production: Practices and Trends; Meat from pastures and mixed farming; Confined animal feeding; Animal feedstuffs; Productivity efficiencies and changes; Treatment of animals; Meat: An Environmentally Expensive Food; Animal densities and aggregate zoomass; Changing animal landscapes; Intensive production of feedstuffs; Water use and water pollution; Meat and the atmosphere; 5 Possible Futures; Toward Rational Meat Eating: Alternatives and Adjustments; Meatless diets; Meat substitutes and cultured meatProtein from other animal foodstuffs; Less meaty diets; A large potential for rational meat production; Prospects for Change; References; Index
• Sommario/riassunto: Meat eating is often a contentious subject, whether considering the technical, ethical, environmental, political, or health-related aspects of production and consumption. This book is a wide-ranging and interdisciplinary examination and critique of meat consumption by humans, throughout their evolution and around the world. Setting the scene with a chapter on meat's role in human evolution and its growing influence during the development of agricultural practices, the book goes on to examine modern production systems, their efficiencies, outputs, and impacts. The major global trends o