Yes and no. Prices may rise but that doesn’t necessarily mean the poorer would be unable to eat meat.
Current western culture, outside of explicit vegan and vegetarianism, has people eating meat almost every day, for both lunch and dinner, and occasionally for breakfast and snacks too.
Fish may be eaten once or twice a week, but generally people eat some form of chicken, beef, turkey, pork, or lamb every single day, at least twice a day.
Instead of being an item that is eaten with almost every meal, it could instead be treated as an item to only consume occasionally. Or once a day instead of multiple times a day.
Protein and flavour is in plentiful supply from plants.
Note: before the “um actually, I don’t”, this is a broad generalisation of western food habits. Not necessarily indicative of specific people’s individual habits.
All anyone has to do is begin viewing meat as an accompaniment to their diet rather than the feature.
I used to stockpile meat in my freezer when it was on sale. So, I would keep the usual suspects - celery, carrot, onion, potato, garlic - in the fridge because they kept longer and went well with beef/pork/chicken.
So my diet stagnated. I regularly had eight pork chops, six steaks and three butchered chickens in my freezer, so the sunk cost fallacy would lead me to come up with different ways of preparing them.
Strange how things go. One year my wife had to go back to be with her family a month or so earlier than planned for the holidays. So for half of November and most of December I was flying solo. Great, I just used what I had at hand.
By the time it was my turn to join her I had cleaned out my freezer.
Coming back after the holidays, there were no sales to be had to “restock” my freezer so I didn’t bother with that. I was also pretty tired of a meat-heavy diet so the first few weeks back I did things like eggplant parm, but also much lighter meals like panko crusted tofu with snap peas, etc
That was about four years ago. That early January desire for a change of pace resulted in me planning meals more precisely, because I had to buy produce with a much shorter shelf life.
That organization opened up a variety of possibilities. I started looking for shops that specialized in produce rather than just looking for what was available at the big box grocery stores.
Instead of spending on beef at stupid rates, I started looking at widening my spice drawer. Aleppo pepper, black garlic, pomegranate molasses, high quality Spanish paprikas, saffron, the list goes on. I also started trying out fruits and vegetables as features instead of sides. Jackfruit, daikon radish, different gourds, a panoply of brassica…
I still eat meat, but it’s the side now. Much more interesting.
If the money is not spend on meat or planes, then it would be spend on other things instead. There are alternatives for that. Say planes and high speed rail for example. Warsaw to Lisbon is a 2800km directly. High speed trains can go 300km/h and faster, so a sleeper train with that sort of speed can make the trip pretty easily, without even having to go at top speed and around some natural barriers.
Something similar would happen with meat. As in workable alternatives would be developed or adopted.
If animal flesh wasn’t subsidised so much in a lot of places, no one except the wealthy would be able to afford to eat animals.
Oh no
I am also a fat vegan.
Yes and no. Prices may rise but that doesn’t necessarily mean the poorer would be unable to eat meat.
Current western culture, outside of explicit vegan and vegetarianism, has people eating meat almost every day, for both lunch and dinner, and occasionally for breakfast and snacks too.
Fish may be eaten once or twice a week, but generally people eat some form of chicken, beef, turkey, pork, or lamb every single day, at least twice a day.
Instead of being an item that is eaten with almost every meal, it could instead be treated as an item to only consume occasionally. Or once a day instead of multiple times a day.
Protein and flavour is in plentiful supply from plants.
Note: before the “um actually, I don’t”, this is a broad generalisation of western food habits. Not necessarily indicative of specific people’s individual habits.
All anyone has to do is begin viewing meat as an accompaniment to their diet rather than the feature.
I used to stockpile meat in my freezer when it was on sale. So, I would keep the usual suspects - celery, carrot, onion, potato, garlic - in the fridge because they kept longer and went well with beef/pork/chicken.
So my diet stagnated. I regularly had eight pork chops, six steaks and three butchered chickens in my freezer, so the sunk cost fallacy would lead me to come up with different ways of preparing them.
Strange how things go. One year my wife had to go back to be with her family a month or so earlier than planned for the holidays. So for half of November and most of December I was flying solo. Great, I just used what I had at hand.
By the time it was my turn to join her I had cleaned out my freezer.
Coming back after the holidays, there were no sales to be had to “restock” my freezer so I didn’t bother with that. I was also pretty tired of a meat-heavy diet so the first few weeks back I did things like eggplant parm, but also much lighter meals like panko crusted tofu with snap peas, etc
That was about four years ago. That early January desire for a change of pace resulted in me planning meals more precisely, because I had to buy produce with a much shorter shelf life.
That organization opened up a variety of possibilities. I started looking for shops that specialized in produce rather than just looking for what was available at the big box grocery stores.
Instead of spending on beef at stupid rates, I started looking at widening my spice drawer. Aleppo pepper, black garlic, pomegranate molasses, high quality Spanish paprikas, saffron, the list goes on. I also started trying out fruits and vegetables as features instead of sides. Jackfruit, daikon radish, different gourds, a panoply of brassica…
I still eat meat, but it’s the side now. Much more interesting.
Ooh pomegranate molasses sounds really good
It is a common ingredient in Middle Eastern cuisine.
Ah, that’s a cuisine I really ought to learn to cook. I never have because I’m a pescatarian and my wife finds falafel unsatisfying as a meal
which is a good and a bad thing simultaniously. same with flying in planes, should be more expensive but then is too expensive for some
If the money is not spend on meat or planes, then it would be spend on other things instead. There are alternatives for that. Say planes and high speed rail for example. Warsaw to Lisbon is a 2800km directly. High speed trains can go 300km/h and faster, so a sleeper train with that sort of speed can make the trip pretty easily, without even having to go at top speed and around some natural barriers.
Something similar would happen with meat. As in workable alternatives would be developed or adopted.
Or more likely those of us who eat meat would just have it on holidays and special occasions
As regular people have for most of history.
Fair enough, let’s ban meat for everyone then.