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Americans eat a lot of meat.

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We eat it[br]for all meals for the day,

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Because it's the Fourth of July,

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because we're at a baseball game, and because, hey, it's on sale.

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We consume more of it then the rest of[br]the world,

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and all that consumption has a big[br]impact. If everyone ate meat like Americans,

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it would be a disaster. so what is it[br]about us

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So what is it about us, that's turned America into a nation of carnivores?

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It could be our wealth –

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but there are other countries that are[br]wealthier.

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It could be our farm subsidies –

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but lots of other countries have those too. I was curious –

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so I phoned a meat historian.

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"My name is Maureen Ogle, and I'm a historian."

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For seven years she researched meat and[br]in the end, she wrote a book about it.

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This book.

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So, why are we such meat fanatics?

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"One thing that's important to know[br]about the people who settled North America,

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is that they all left a place that food was often scarce

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in a way that's nearly impossible for us to imagine now."

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In Europe land was in short supply and[br]cities were growing rapidly.

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Only royalty ate meat regularly,[br]because they were the only ones who had

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access to grazing land.

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In America, by contrast, the land was there for the taking

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– from the Native Americans.

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Colonists didn't know how far west the West went.

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And with their legal structure, almost[br]anyone could own livestock.

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"It was so easy for livestock to[br]reproduce – within just a generation or two,

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colonists became accustomed to the[br]notion that

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meat was always available

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and always on the table."

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There are cases where indentured[br]servants complained or away because

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they weren't getting fed enough meat –

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and in general, the colonial legal system agreed –

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everyone deserved meat.

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"But I think that sense of entitlement became a defining characteristic of what it meant to be an American."

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Right from the beginning we wanted meat, because it felt like America was teeming in this

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endless bounty of wildlife, land, and, uh –

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pigs.

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After Americans had settled down and got[br]comfortable,

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farmers packed up been headed to the[br]city –

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but urban Americans kept their appetite for meat.

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"That's important because

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city people don't produce their own food.[br]Approximately 1810, about 7 percent

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of Americans lived in an urban[br]place.

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By the time the Civil War broke out,

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almost a quarter of them did."

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Initially, people just ate less meat.

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It made sense – fewer farms meant less.

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But, urban Americans demanded more and cheaper meat

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and our modern industrial system obliged. By the late 1800s

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America had built up an extraordinarily[br]large, lucrative, and efficient system

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for raising livestock

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turning them into meat,

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and distributing that meat to stores across the U.S.

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Meat traveled distances in hours –distances that once took weeks.

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Transportation and other technologies,[br]like refrigeration,

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made meat cheaper and cities more[br]attractive.

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And cheap meat is what Americans wanted.

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So what's the deal with Americans and meat?

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It's the idea that we're entitled to it – [br]the sense that land and resources are

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plentiful and inexhaustible –

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and even if the US is consumption has[br]decreased

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ever so slightly were still far more carnivorous than most.

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Most countries love meat – but we Americans have[br]had such a full history with it,

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because it was – from the very beginning – cheap and available.

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and we've worked hard to keep it that way.

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"Meat is a whole lot like gasoline,

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the only time Americans really get upset[br]about meat is if it suddenly seams unafforable

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and as soon as the prices go back down – well then no one's got any complaint."

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When Americans met meat,

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it was love at first sight. Now we[br]have to figure out

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how to live happily ever after.