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[Jenne Heise]

>The meat heavy diet in the US probably has more to do with 1) meat being
>relatively inexpensive and 2) the advent of a rail to market transportation
>system in the 19th Century which made meat a common product.
>
This feeds into my earlier point, equating meat with prosperity.  We 
streamlined production and transportation to meet the demand for the 
product.  As the price drops and availability increases, a greater range of 
consumers begin buying the product, so production steps up.  More gets 
produced, and consumption steps up as well.  It becomes circular; "Crunch 
all you want; we'll make more."  We wanted more meat, so we came up with 
ways to produce large amounts relatively cheaply. But why did we want all 
this meat in the first place?

I think it's due to this deep-seated cultural programming.  "Wealthy people 
eat meat.  If I eat meat, I must be wealthy."

Vicente

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