US meat eaters driven by health, not eco concerns

Nov 12, 2024
By Farms.com

Rutgers finds health tops sustainability in meat choices

Recent findings from Rutgers University indicate that environmental sustainability has minimal influence on Americans' meat consumption decisions.

The study, involving more than 1,200 adults, suggests that health concerns and price significantly outweigh environmental considerations.

According to the research, published in Appetite, 78% of respondents consume red meat weekly, but nearly 70% have reduced their intake primarily for health (64%) and price (32%) reasons, with only a small fraction (6%) motivated by environmental concerns.

The study also revealed that health (85%) and taste (84%) are the most crucial factors for consumers when purchasing meat, compared to environmental sustainability (29%) and animal welfare (28%).

Notably, demographic trends show that older adults and females are more inclined to consider health and environmental impacts in their dietary choices.

Video: Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way

Harvest is a week out and the farm picked this week to fall apart. The truck needs a battery, the barn curtain's got a problem, and the corn and beans are telling us we're out of time to get it all fixed.

So it's a full day of wrenching. Tork supervises while I get the truck back running, then we're out at the hog barn where one rusted up part has the whole curtain system hung up. Ladder work, cable work, and a little dad-and-son disagreement about the right way to do it. We close it out walking the fields, shelling beans and checking corn, because whether everything's fixed or not, harvest starts when harvest starts.

Chapters: 00:00 Everything breaks the week before harvest 01:00 Tork supervises while I fix the truck 12:30 Out to the barn to find the curtain problem 14:30 One rusty part hung up the whole curtain 20:00 Running the curtain cable from the ladder 24:00 Walking the beans and corn before harvest 26:30 Wrapping up

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