The New York Times recently asked—facetiously, we hope—whether the production and consumption of meat is even worthy of discussion anymore, or whether civilization has (allegedly) progressed to the point that we no longer need animal protein in our diets, livestock on our farmland or producers as part of agriculture.
The narrow answer to that question, absurd as it might sound, is yes: Thanks to the advances of science and technology, we can produce a wholesome food supply without relying on the traditional practices of animal husbandry, dairying and the diversified farming that incorporates both livestock and crop production on site.
We used to call that homesteading, and those who practiced were revered as pioneers.
Now, they’re labeled as anachronisms, evildoers, to some, impediments to the nutritional progress that has delivered us from animal agriculture.
Or so the activist community wants us to believe.
Now, as I’ve argued for decades, vegetarianism is like celibacy: Not for everyone, certainly not anything to be labeled as “natural,” but if that’s your choice, God bless. Nothing wrong with choosing to go veggie, but arguing that we must stop eating meat, that we’re somehow ordained to be vegetarians, that’s inaccurate, illogical and contrary to the historical record of the last several millennia.
For example: Look at the great civilizations in history. How did they sustain themselves? What kind of diets did they consume? And how were they able to ascend to such cultural and scientific heights?
The answer to the last question is agriculture. Without a surplus of food produced by both farming and the domestication of livestock, primitive people never attain the ability to divide up the labor and thus benefit from the specialization needed to support the study of the arts and sciences. Historically, those who lived either a hunter-gatherer or a subsistence lifestyle relying on easily available wild foods, spent virtually their entire existence simply providing for their daily fare.
Are animal foods produced from herding and dairying essential to civilization? Look at three examples of how animal foods fed not just people but progress itself.
The Ancient Egyptians. Although they left less of a written record than other, later empires, at its height, from around 3000 B.C. until the rise of the Persians Empire and later the Romans around 600 B.C. During that time, Egypt ruled much of the Middle East, and its leaders were skilled at provisioning not only their own people—thanks in large measure to the rich farmlands along the Nile—but also the hundreds of thousands of captives and slaves used to construct the pyramids and other monuments that stand as testament to their civilization.
Meat, including fish and wild game, were staples, although laborers and certainly slaves did not enjoy them as often as the royalty and the educated classes. The common people did manage to eat geese, ducks, quail and some domesticated fowl, according to archaeologists, along with many types of edible fish from the Nile River. Fish were commonly salted and dried in the sun.
Beef from cattle was regularly eaten by the rich, but reserved for ordinary people only on festive occasions, when sheep or goats would be slaughtered. Tomb paintings depict the butchering and cooking of wild game, such as antelope, ibex, gazelles and deer. Pork was also eaten, along with milk, cheese and butter.
Ancient China. The Chinese are justly famous for a variety of food-related innovations. Thousands of years ago, they developed and cultivated numerous strains of rice, millet, sorghum, and wheat and harvested various herbs and spices that eventually became valuable trade goods. They learned how to cultivate soybeans and to extract the nutritional from them in the form of bean curd (tofu) and soy milk.
But by 5500 BC, the Chinese were raising and consuming eating domesticated chickens, birds that originally came from the area now known as Thailand. By 4000 B.C., they had added pork to their diet from pigs that historians believe were native to that part of the world. At around the same time, sheep and cattle, which are not native to China, were also being imported and bred for meat, milk, dairy products and wool.
All of that allowed the growth of a population and a civilization that established itself as one of the most inventive and advanced in all of the ancient world.
The Roman Empire. From a description of a celebration held somewhere around 10 B.C., we know that the Romans—at least those who were well-off—consumed staples such as fresh bread, beans, olives, onions, cabbage and a few other vegetables and fruits. But their staples also included butter, cheese, eggs, ham and fish, as well as occasional chicken and delicacies such as oysters and clams.
Vital to the success of the Romans’ legions was the army’s ability to subsist on rations that traveled with them across the thousands of miles of roadways built for that purpose. Thus, local grain, vegetables and dried, salted meat were essential not only to the soldiers’ diets but to the overall success of the empire.
In these and virtually every other case of humanity’s highest accomplishments, the basis of the social structures that supported cultural and scientific progress was farming and livestock production.
Maybe the New York Times ought to take a closer look at the island where they’re headquartered. At a much more recent time in history than any of the examples above, Manhattan was portioned off into farmsteads tended by Dutch and later English colonialsettlers.
And every one of them was raising livestock, eating animal foods and making use of the natural fertilizer to grow the crops that supported the settlement.
Do we need to review what their success eventually produced?
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Dan Murphy, a veteran food-industry journalist and commentator.
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