Counting Animals

Animals we use and abuse for food we do not eat

We waste a lot of food in the United States. Sometimes, this thing that we call food is actually the remains of a sentient and cognitively agile animal who wanted to live but who we killed anyway to serve as our food. There is something deeply wretched about inflicting lifelong pain and misery and finally death on an animal for food we are not going to eat. In this post, for each category of animal products used as food, I plot the percentage of the edible weight of animal products that enters the retail market as food but which is not eaten and is just thrown away into our landfills. To take a look at the graphical data and read the accompanying commentary, click here.

More cows harmed for cheese than for milk

In the popular imagination, dairy is still largely associated with the fluid milk we drink. However, the per capita consumption of fluid milk has dropped by almost 30% since 1970 simultaneously as the per capita cheese consumption in the US has increased by 177%! So, are cows still being used largely for the fluid milk we drink or for the cheese we eat? In this post, I try to answer this question by first looking into the number of pounds of raw cow's milk required to make one pound of each dairy product. Given current consumption patterns, it turns out that more of a cow’s milk is consumed today as cheese than as any other dairy product. Cheese consumption today is the largest enemy of cows and calves in the dairy industry! Read the full post and take a look at the graphics by clicking here.

Meat consumption and demand both in decline

We have known for sometime that per capita meat consumption in the US has been on a steady decline. In fact, the latest projections by the USDA indicate that per capita meat consumption will continue to drop through 2013! But, consumption is not the same as demand. For example, when prices rise or incomes fall, the per capita consumption of a product may drop but not necessarily the demand for the product. Animal advocates are interested in reducing per capita meat consumption, but they are even more keen on actually reducing the demand for meat. In this post, I examine if it is not just the per capita meat consumption but the demand itself that is also in decline. Find out the answer and take a look at the graphics by clicking here.

Electoral politics and the meat industry

The election season is in full swing which makes it a good time to examine who the meat industry wants elected and whose influence the meat industry is trying to buy. In this post, I look at which candidates are receiving the support of the meat, egg and dairy industries, as measured by the contributions they receive from Political Action Committees (PACs) aligned with these industries. I also look at whether this support is less likely for candidates with a history of taking the side of the animals in legislative matters, as measured by the scores assigned to members of Congress by the Humane Society Legislative Fund. To take a look at the graphical data and read the inferences that follow, click here.

Meat consumption patterns by race and gender

Do women consume less beef and pork than men? Do black Americans consume less dairy than white Americans? Answers to these types of questions are essential to developing targeted campaigns that employ some of the elementary principles of consumer marketing such as market selection and market segmentation. To successfully persuade large numbers of people to change their dietary habits with well-tailored campaigns, animal activists have to understand how meat consumption patterns vary with demographic characteristics. In this post, you will find answers to the questions above and many others. To read the full post and see the graphs comparing meat, dairy and egg consumption by race, ethnicity and gender, click here.

Look who is talking animal welfare!

In these days of YouTube and Facebook, it is hard for oppressive dictators, whether in China, Iran or Zimbabwe, to successfully hide their gory doings. So, they seek to confuse the naive by seasoning their speeches with generous references to liberty, justice and the rule of law, while disparaging the human rights activists asking for liberty, justice and the rule of law. The meat industry today finds itself in a similar predicament. Threatened by the increasing success of animal advocates in exposing the worst abuses of the meat industry, they have had to start talking a lot about animal welfare while also disparaging the activists asking for improved animal welfare. To see the data and the graphic on how often the meat industry press talks about animal rights, animal welfare, or the HSUS, read the full post by clicking here.

Meat industry advertising

Non-profit organizations that advocate for animals urge us to eat less meat or forgo meat altogether at the same time as we face a constant onslaught of advertising from the meat industry urging us to eat more of their meat products. In this struggle between opposing messages, meat-oriented chain restaurants and the meat packing industry have a significant advantage in financial resources available to them. In this post, I provide a graphic that helps us visualize the scale of the difference between the dollars spent on promoting meat and the dollars spent on the advocacy of farm animals. As the message of the animal advocates begins to nick the meat industry bottom line, groups funded by the industry and some in the meat industry press have been grousing over the last few years about the amount of money spent by animal advocacy organizations. As the graphic shows, this is actually a tussle between a David and a Goliath, with the exception that in this case Goliath cannot stop whining about how David is too big. Read the full post and see the graphic by clicking here.

How many animals does a vegetarian save?

A vegetarian spares the lives of a certain number of animals each time he or she chooses to forgo meat for vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes and nuts. But, exactly how many animals does a vegetarian save each year? In this post, I attempt such an estimate and find that a vegetarian saves more than 404 animals each year (34 land animals, 219 fish and 151 shellfish). My methodology is very conservative but my numbers are larger than those previously quoted in animal advocacy circles. Vegetarians have been undercounting the number of animals they actually save and short-selling their impact on animal lives. A vegetarian actually saves at least one animal a day! To find out the rationale behind these numbers, read the full post by clicking here.

The paradoxical increase in the use of primates in research

Over the last two decades, we have seen a somewhat steady decline in research-oriented use of all classes of animals covered by the Animal Welfare Act—but for one stubborn and puzzling exception. That exception has to do with non-human primates, paradoxically among the more popular animals with the general public. Our use of non-human primates has actually been increasing—especially sharply during the last decade—at the same time as the number of animals of other classes used in research has been declining. What can explain this paradox? Read the full post and see the graphics by clicking here.

Is Vegan Outreach right about how many animals suffer to death?

There is no dispute over the fact that an overwhelming majority of the animals that die at the hands of humans are those that are killed for food. But, Vegan Outreach, a small non-profit focused on reducing animal suffering, makes a startling claim about the scale of their suffering. According to Vegan Outreach, the number of these animals used for food that suffer to death without even making it to slaughter is many times more than the number killed for fur, in shelters, and in laboratories combined. Is Vegan Outreach right or is this just a well-meaning hyperbole? To find out, read the full post and see the graphics by clicking here.