2.4 SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION


Box 2.4.5: Norms of femininity and masculinity as drivers of meat consumption


The consumption and production of meat are receiving increasing attention as a global environmental threat (UNEP-GEAS 2012; UNEP 2009; York and Gossard 2004). Meat production is resource intensive, requiring up to ten times the quantities of land, energy and water as equivalent amounts of vegetarian food


(York and Gossard 2004; Dutilh and Kramer 2000). Beef production has the most damaging environmental impacts, for example contributing to deforestation, desertification and global warming. Recent estimates of animal agriculture’s share of total global GHG emissions range between 10% and 25%; the higher figure includes the effects of deforestation and other land use changes and the lower one does not. According to recent analyses, GHG emissions from livestock production represent nearly 80% of all agricultural GHG emissions (UNEP-GEAS 2012).


Global meat consumption is growing rapidly and is closely associated with increases in urbanization and individual purchasing power (FAO 2002). Economic development is generally associated with increases in per capita food consumption and a higher proportion of meat as part of that increase, although this is not true everywhere ( UNEP 2009; York and Gossard 2004; Rosegrant et al. 2001) Eating meat is closely gendered: meat is symbolically and socially associated with manhood (Wellesley et al. 2015; Adams 2010). The nature of the male-meat association varies around the world, and cultural differences interact with the availability of meat to shape somewhat different versions of the meat-masculinity association (Schösler et al. 2015). Nevertheless, it is a global pattern that men emphasize meat and women minimize it as part of their gender identity: men are perceived as “needing” meat more than women and eating meat is considered a male prerogative; taboos about eating it are applied more often to women than to men; and when poverty or food insecurity compel a deliberate restriction of meat, women eat it last and least (Rothgerber 2013; Sobal 2005; Leghorn and Roodkowsky 1977). Eating meat reflects and reinforces male privilege and power, although specific historical and socio-cultural explanations for the meat-masculinity complex vary widely. Systematic and comparative data on gender and meat consumption are not fully available, but two examples are illustrative:


In the United States adult women eat about 20% less meat on average than adult men (44% less beef, 39% less pork and 23% less poultry) (USDA 2012): In São Paolo, Brazil, the ratio is similar:


Daily meat consumption in the United States, 2012 (grams per day)


Beef Pork Men Women


78.16 43.64


38.07 23.08


Poultry 61.53 47.18


Total


Most environmental analysts agree that changes in meat eating are required for environmental sustainability. Scientists suggest that to keep global GHG emissions to 2000 levels, the over 9 billion people projected to live in the world in 2050 will need to consume no more than an average 70-90 grams of meat per day (UNEP-GEAS 2012). To meet this target, substantial reductions in meat consumption in developed countries and less rapid growth of demand in developing ones are required (UNEP-GEAS 2012). Such a shift in consumption will only be successful if the gender-specific social embeddedness of meat is addressed: a dietary shift needs to be accompanied or preceded by a shift in the gender relations and associations


177.76 113.90


of meat eating (Schösler et al. 2015; Wellesley et al. 2015).


Daily beef and pork consumption, São Paolo, Brazil, 2008 (grams per day)


Men Women


104.1 59.4


Source: de Carvalho et al. (2014)


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