Should we need to change our shopping behavior of meat?

The meat industry has adverse impacts on the environment. People may know it, but they continue to buy a lot of meat. Australia is one of the eating meat capital countries, and it will consume 121.6 kilograms meat per year.  And, Australians consumed 40 kg of meat per person. Do people need to consume so much meat?

How does meat production result in environmental issues?

Livestock’s Lure and Liabilities (made by Annual Reviews).

What does consuming much meat will cause?

First, it will exacerbate environmental problems. Producing meat needs many resources, like water, grain, and land. Around 25 kilograms of grain and  15,000 liters of water only produce one kilogram of beef. If the demand increase, the producer will foster more livestock. Then, to produce extra meat exacerbates the deterioration of the environment and increases the demand for energy consumption.

Second, the producer will gain economic loss. Buying more meat will give a fake sign for the market. The market will think people need a lot of meat. The producer will produce more meat to supply the demand. But it is not true, and it is temporary. The number of people would not always buy a lot of meat. Finally, this will result in supply exceeding demand. Extra meat cannot be sold, which causes an economic loss for the producer.

Third, it may cause waste. If people buy a lot of meat than they actually consume, some meat may pass the shelf life, and then people may not eat it.

What will it look like?

Initially, I will illustrate the data about how much meat do Australians consume in one year. I also want to find a picture of the intake of meat products and other products, like vegetables. I will compare these data to see whether Australians consume more meat than they needed. Then, I will point out the problems caused by consuming a lot of meat. Finally, I will post a question that considering these problems, should people need to change their shopping behavior of meat? Changing the shopping behavior of meat does not mean that people should not buy meat or buy a small amount of meat. It just suggests that people should purchase meat for their demand instead of over-consumption.

About the interview,  I want to have an interview with a nutrition expert. I will ask about diet suggestions about how much meat products they should intake every day. I am not sure whether I can interview a nutrition expert in Australia. If I can not, I will use an online app which is called pinanhaoyisheng to interview a Chinese nutrition expert, and then translate our conversation into English.

 I also will post a poll at the bottom of the article. Let readers vote whether they are willing to change their shopping habits.

Target audience & publication

My target audience is people whose ages between 18-40, because these people may easily accept change. So, they may change their shopping behavior and diet habit. Also, these people are good at using social media to disseminate information to other people. Then, more and more people will know that they may need to control their daily intake of meat.

I want to publish in BuzzFeed because it is a very popular news website. It has more than 200 million monthly viewers, and half of the readers are millennials. This is exactly the reader I want. The environmental problem is essential, and it is related to our daily life. More people read my article, more people may be willing to change their shopping behavior. It can invisibly improve environmental problems.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply