This assignment really made me think about what I eat in my daily life.  I’ve never really looked at my eating habits before and didn’t think they were unusual.  When I broke it down, I realized that I eat meat with almost every meal.  It is usually eggs in the morning, lunchmeat in the afternoon, and some type of meat for dinner.  A lot of my dinners are predominately meat because in my mind it’s the focus.  A meal doesn’t feel complete without some type of meat.  I think this social norm came from my family.  I grew up in a family that ate some type of meat with almost every meal.  My friends and extended family were the same way. I think this type of eating is normal for many Americans.  We’re relatively affluent compared to the rest of the world and this affluence shows up in our diets.  Eating a lot of meat is definitely a social norm in this country.  We can see this norm in the way vegetarians are treated.

My food choice is definitely bad for the environment.  Eating a lot of meat has a large impact on our resource usage and is a contributing factor to global warming.  The first issue posed by eating meat is sustainability.  It’s not sustainable for everyone on the planet to have the same diet as me.  As incomes rise, people will buy more meat and worsen the problem.  Eating meat is not sustainable because of the inputs it takes to raise livestock.  They need to be fed with food that could otherwise be for human consumption.  The caloric intake of an animal does not equal the calories we get when they’re consumed. This means that calories, which took resources to grow are wasted.  The second societal issue posed by a meat-centric diet is obesity.  We all know that Americans have an obesity problem and our diets are a major factor.  Meat has high levels of fat and we would be healthier by incorporating more plants into our diets.