TThis is a strange logic for environmental protection. In most cases, we admire those who are stepping up their lifestyles to support environmental issues. Turning off the lights or driving an electric car before leaving the house is a small but meaningful step, even if you don't give up. Electric forever. No one would be ashamed of not making dinner with flint.
However, when animals are involved, the logic breaks down. Reducing meat consumption without going tovegancompletelyis considered a compromise, a slightly shameful cupout. "Meatless Monday" is often blamed for the slogan, and "humanitarian slaughter" is considered oxymoron. Interestingly, however, the feelings between the accuser and the accused tend to be interrelated. Even those who have significantly reduced their meat consumption, for example once a year, cannot shake their sense of guilt. Many vegetarians have a long-standing guilt for not being a vegan. The Reducerian Movementand its leader, Brian Kateman, aim to change that.
Inappropriate Label
The Reducingist Foundation emphasizes the value of "small changes in personal and institutional behavior that make a big difference in the world." increase. Originally from Staten Island, Kateman grew up on a standard American diet with a lot of meat. However, when he was in his third year of college in 2010, he touched on his view of the philosopher Peter Singer on animal welfare and realized the ethical and environmental implications of eating animals.
But even as Kateman's meat consumption approaches zero, others around him are more cautious about his ethical commitment than a breach of his ethical commitment. Was weak. He remembers the Thanksgiving when slicing a turkey as a gesture to respect the traditions of his family, but was soon teased by his sister. "I thought you were a vegetarian, Brian."
Kateman stopped calling himself a vegetarian, but other labels such as "flirt vegetarian" and "lazy vegetarian" were defined in terms of negativeness. I did. Neutral terms such as "half-vegetarian," "mainly vegetarian," and "flexitarian" are "static" in Kateman's words and do not promote further efforts to reduce meat. Ideally I made it zero so I didn't cut it completely. To make matters worse, terms like "mainly vegetarians" set too high a standard that most people find difficult to aim for. Such phrases can make people mentally tired before making changes.
Then, in 2014, when I saw Kateman bring a chicken salad and Kateman had a weekly lunch with his friend Tyler Alterman, I asked the now familiar question. .. However, although Alterman's tone was neither blame nor ironic, he was cautiously curious. Alterman was also reducing meat, but found that the existing label was inadequate. After repeated brainstorming, the duo soon came up with a positive and comprehensive term.
Read more:How China changes the world by removing meat from the menu
Is a reduction movement.
As explained in the 2014TED Talk, Kateman finds it difficult for most people to be 100% vegan or vegetarian. , No effort is made to reduce meat and dairy products. Existing labels are "all or nothing" and will not be evaluated. Even those who decide to seldom eat meat will be ridiculed by calling themselves "vegetarians". As a result, many have given up on efforts to completely reduce meat.
One style of diet, the Flexitarian Diet, allows you to eat meat and dairy products while eating a predominantly plant-based diet. So what's the difference between a reducerian and a flexitarian? "Flexitarians are people who eat primarily plant-based foods and occasionally contain animal products. They can be thought of primarily as vegans or vegetarians," Kateman told me. "" Reducerian "is a comprehensive term. But it mainly represents those who have eaten too many animal products and decided to cut back. (Kateman with a degree in evolutionary biology and conservation biology does not have a medical or nutritional background.)
For example, suppose someone eats 200 pounds of meat each year. prize. This is still below the USannual average meat consumption. If you reduce meat by 10% (eat 180 pounds a year), you become a weight loser. “They have taken an incredible step to reduce the amount of animal products they consume,” says Kateman. "But flexitarians mainly eat plant-based foods, so they are not flexitarians." Under this definition, vegetarians and vegans are weight lossers, reducing meat consumption to zero. rice field.
To amplify this message, the Reducetarian Foundation, founded in 2015, is advocating for funding and outreach activities. Create content that spreads through a variety of channels, including 's influential sort readerand college campus clubs. We will hold an annual meeting. The Foundation'sResearch Divisionis conducting publicly available research on how to effectively deliver messages.
Essay CollectionReducetarianSolution,, published by Kateman in 2017, show that this idea attracts an unthinkable number of thinkers. I did. Notable in this book is not only its impressive list of contributors and supporters, but also their political and philosophical inconsistencies, as well as Jeffrey Sachs, Noam Chomsky and Richard Dawkins. is. You rarely see a marketing guru (Seth Godin), an environmental writer and activist (Bill McKibben), a self-proclaimed Rivertarian (Michael Shermer), and a feminist criticism writer (Carol J. Adams) alone. A book that claims the same cause.
Benefits of the reduction movement
From a planetary point of view, reducing consumption by one person eating 200 pounds of meat increases the primary effect. increase. Half as much as when five people who eat 10 pounds of meat become completely vegan — again, by no means a vegetarian. It's a simple calculation. 100 pounds is more than 50 pounds.
At the individual level, a plant-based diet is rich in health, includingheart disease prevention,total cholesterol reduction,reduction. Provides benefits. Risk of cognitive dysfunction and dementiaThe time it takes to see the beneficial effects of a plant-based diet varies from symptom to symptom and from person to person. Physician Nutrition Update: Benjamin P., a South California-based doctor who co-authored a plant-based diet. According to Dr. Ha, some improvements will be seen within a few days. "If you really use a 100% whole food, plant-based diet that contains few animal proteins, dairy products, and processed foods, you'll see a significant improvement in cholesterol in just 10 days," Ha said. say. Cholesterus is an example that many patients are worried about. "Pre-testing baseline cholesterol, eating a plant-based diet for 10 days, and post-testing often reduces baseline cholesterol by 20%, 30%, and 40%."
Importantly, Ha emphasized that being a vegetarian is not synonymous with accepting a plant-based diet. He noticed a lot of confusion among patients about what plant-based nutrition means. He says, "People come to me and" well, I start eating soy hot dogs. " Unfortunately, it doesn't benefit your health more than what you're eating now, "ha says. "It's not about becoming a vegan or a vegetarian. It's really about eating raw, plant-based whole food."
In addition, by curbing animal farming,of water Crisis can be mitigated— 1 pound of beef requires about 40 times more water than starchy vegetables — andfactory farm worker exploitationannuallyIt is estimated that more than 70 billion terrestrial animals have been slaughtered for food, and a simple calculation shows that the number of animals killed every 10 hours is the total number of deaths from World War II. You can see that it is equal to. It happened for over 6 years). Meat consumption alsoundermines biodiversityOverall, it's obviously good for you, for other humans, and for the animals that are slaughtered for meat,It's also good for animals that aren't. Slaughtered for meat.
Read more:A vegan documentary tells the story behind the meat industry that grew up in the laboratory
The task reduction movement
Over the years, the raging opposition was often as strong as the voice of its supporters. Once at the Animal Rights Conference, Kateman saw a sign that said, "Brian Kateman speaking at the Animal Rights Conference is like Donald Trump speaking at the Women's Rights Conference."
Still, Kateman chooses to avoid building a coalition by choosing one side. Rather, he carefully maintains a careful alliance between the other side. The unwavering belief of the reductionist movement can be the "inclusiveness" of various philosophical views. In his keynote speech at theReducerian Summit, Kateman repeatedly held an annual meeting for supporters of the Reducerian movement,a small difference in narcissism. I warned against my thoughts. Striving for the same goal (that is, reducing meat consumption) can lead to the most severe divisions.
N. Y. U.Marion Nestle, Emerita's professor of nutrition and food research, praises the inclusiveness of the exercise, including a vegan, vegetarian, and just-don't eat meat approach, but she also points out how it was possible. It will be a pitfall. "Social movements are not famous for their inclusiveness. Participants with more extreme ideological positions tend to exclude centrists. Therefore, framing this movement as a centlist may seem like a strength. Maybe, but it has its own weaknesses in political infeasibility, "Nesle told me. "The reductionist movement wants something in common between carnivorous and non-carnivorous people. That alone wants a lot."
San Francisco in May after a two-year hiatus. The extraordinary combination of participants at the 4th Reducetarian Summit in Japan proves this value. Among them are registered Republican Senators, Democrats with cards, representatives of non-profit organizations, scientists from multinational companies like Danone, all supporting the same purpose.
Personally, Kateman is neither self-serious nor evangelical. He would first admit that eating less meat is not a new concept. However, Kateman's naming recast assembled an existing idea into a movement.
There are many signs of a hopeful cultural seismic record for the future of plant-based foods. Public interest in plant-based meat israpidly growing, and plant-based sales areclimbingannually for food. Perhaps these gradual changes distill the heart of the reduction movement. Small seismic waves of our individual choice can cause long postponed earthquakes.
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