Meat in crisis

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Coronavirus has spread throughout meat processing plants, leading to at least 19 temporary closures. Pork production has fallen by 25%, and beef by 10%. Chicken is also down.

The issue has been exacerbated by the consolidation of the meat industry. Three companies are responsible for two-thirds of all the beef in the US. That means that when one of their giant plants closes, the ripple effect quickly spreads throughout the supply chain.

So far, at least 20 workers in meatpacking and processing plants are dead from coronavirus, with over 6,500 directly impacted by the disease.

Trump used the Defense Production Act to order plants to remain open, but the meat shortage is hitting restaurants and homes alike.

‘Where’s the beef?’ is no longer a rhetorical question

Feel like getting a burger from your favorite fast-food place? Due to the shortages, that might be impossible. In fact, you might not even be able to grill one up at home.

Some Wendy’s locations have temporarily stopped serving beef. Canadian McDonald’s restaurants are now importing meat from other countries, and some have stopped serving Angus burgers in the meantime.

Meanwhile, grocery stores across the US are limiting the amount of meat that customers can buy.

Prices are expected to rise between 1% and 3% this year, depending on the type of meat in question. Over the short term, though, that increase could be much steeper.

Environmentalists have beef with the meat industry

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The meat industry is awful for the environment. Says the website for advocacy group Clean Water Action,

The entire supply chain of the meat industry contributes to an array of environmental issues affecting climate change and our water quality.

Issues include deforestation and the destruction of native grasses to make room for industrial agriculture, greenhouse gases released from cow burps and farts, and water pollution from fertilizer and manure. In particular, Tyson, one of the US’s top beef producers, caused a massive “dead zone,” a marine area that can’t support life, ever recorded.

The meat industry is so bad that one study found that eating vegetarian once a week reduces your carbon footprint as much as if you cut your yearly commute by over 1,000 miles.

The coronavirus crisis has also exposed how deeply wasteful meat production is. Tyson predicts that millions of animals will be killed and not sent to people to eat, because their factories aren’t open to process them.

A moment for ‘alternative meats?’

According to the Washington Post, “Sales of plant-based meats in the eight weeks ending April 18 were up 265 percent over the previous eight weeks.” In contrast, meat sales rose 39% in that period.

There’s some good news on the stock market, too. Beyond Meat, one of the largest producers of alternative meat products reported that its Q1 earnings were 141% higher than in Q1 of 2019. Their stocks rose by over 4% when that news came out.

Meanwhile, Impossible Foods, another popular meat alternative, is expanding to more grocery chains across the country, even in the middle of the pandemic.

But are these products actually better for the environment—or for your health?

Unfortunately, the answers aren’t so simple.

The numbers are impressive…

Both Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods have data about their environmental impacts on their websites. And the statistics are pretty amazing.

According to Beyond Meat, compared to a traditional beef burger, their product requires 99% less water, 93% less land, and 46% less energy to make. And during production, it emits 90% fewer greenhouse gases.

Impossible Foods also compared the creation of their burgers to the lifecycle of a beef burger. Their product uses 87% less water and 96% less land, while their greenhouse gas emissions are 89% lower.

…but they don’t tell the whole story

For all the impact that the companies claim, experts are a bit more skeptical. There’s not much question that Beyond and Impossible are better for the environment than beef. The debate lies in how they compare to other sources of protein.

According to NBC News,

Plant-based meat alternatives produce the same amount of emissions as chicken — which are about five times the emissions of legumes and vegetables.

CNBC cited a researcher with a different take on how those products compared to chicken, but came to a similar conclusion overall:

While their processed products have about half the carbon footprint that chicken does, they also have 5 times more of a footprint than a bean patty. So Beyond and Impossible go somewhere towards reducing your carbon footprint, but saying it’s the most climate friendly thing to do — that’s a false promise.

The health benefits are also debatable

Fake meat also isn’t necessarily best for your body. The Harvard Health Blog has a handy chart that lets you compare different “meats,” including Beyond, Impossible, beef, and turkey.

Overall, while Beyond and Impossible have similar amounts of protein and vitamins to the real thing, they’re also much higher in sodium because they’re so processed. In terms of calories and saturated fat, they’re both about equal to beef, and much higher than turkey.

As one doctor puts it in the New York Times,

Studies show that replacing red meat with nuts, legumes and other plant foods can lower mortality and chronic disease risk, but it’s not possible to extrapolate that processed burgers made with purified soy or pea protein will have the same health benefits.

So what should you eat?

Meat alternatives are far better for the environment than beef. They can help people transition away from supporting the massive amounts of pollution produced by industrial agriculture.

But what’s best for the environment, and for most people’s health, tends to be a diet low in both processed foods and red meat. That means making your own veggie burgers from legumes, whole grains, and vegetables, not buying sodium-filled alternatives.

At the same time, the farmworkers who get those ingredients to you are also at high risk for coronavirus, compounded by the fact that many are undocumented and may not have access to healthcare.

Unfortunately, there are no easy answers. The best thing you can do is be armed with the facts. Only then can you make an informed decision about what’s best for you and the planet.