1 00:00:00,220 --> 00:00:02,400 Americans eat a lot of meat. 2 00:00:03,200 --> 00:00:04,400 We eat it for all meals for the day, 3 00:00:04,500 --> 00:00:06,379 Because it's the Fourth of July, 4 00:00:06,379 --> 00:00:09,800 because we're at a baseball game, and because, hey, it's on sale. 5 00:00:09,800 --> 00:00:12,990 We consume more of it then the rest of the world, 6 00:00:12,990 --> 00:00:17,440 and all that consumption has a big impact. If everyone ate meat like Americans, 7 00:00:17,440 --> 00:00:19,700 it would be a disaster. so what is it about us 8 00:00:19,700 --> 00:00:23,700 So what is it about us, that's turned America into a nation of carnivores? 9 00:00:23,700 --> 00:00:25,240 It could be our wealth – 10 00:00:25,240 --> 00:00:27,400 but there are other countries that are wealthier. 11 00:00:27,400 --> 00:00:29,400 It could be our farm subsidies – 12 00:00:29,420 --> 00:00:32,540 but lots of other countries have those too. I was curious – 13 00:00:32,540 --> 00:00:36,980 so I phoned a meat historian. 14 00:00:36,980 --> 00:00:40,930 "My name is Maureen Ogle, and I'm a historian." 15 00:00:40,930 --> 00:00:45,420 For seven years she researched meat and in the end, she wrote a book about it. 16 00:00:45,420 --> 00:00:47,000 This book. 17 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:49,469 So, why are we such meat fanatics? 18 00:00:49,469 --> 00:00:53,930 "One thing that's important to know about the people who settled North America, 19 00:00:53,930 --> 00:00:58,969 is that they all left a place that food was often scarce 20 00:00:58,969 --> 00:01:02,460 in a way that's nearly impossible for us to imagine now." 21 00:01:02,460 --> 00:01:06,460 In Europe land was in short supply and cities were growing rapidly. 22 00:01:06,460 --> 00:01:10,619 Only royalty ate meat regularly, because they were the only ones who had 23 00:01:10,619 --> 00:01:12,570 access to grazing land. 24 00:01:12,570 --> 00:01:16,530 In America, by contrast, the land was there for the taking 25 00:01:16,530 --> 00:01:18,000 – from the Native Americans. 26 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:20,000 Colonists didn't know how far west the West went. 27 00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:24,930 And with their legal structure, almost anyone could own livestock. 28 00:01:24,930 --> 00:01:29,540 "It was so easy for livestock to reproduce – within just a generation or two, 29 00:01:29,990 --> 00:01:34,930 colonists became accustomed to the notion that 30 00:01:34,930 --> 00:01:36,900 meat was always available 31 00:01:36,900 --> 00:01:38,790 and always on the table." 32 00:01:38,790 --> 00:01:42,610 There are cases where indentured servants complained or away because 33 00:01:42,610 --> 00:01:44,680 they weren't getting fed enough meat – 34 00:01:44,680 --> 00:01:48,380 and in general, the colonial legal system agreed – 35 00:01:48,380 --> 00:01:50,200 everyone deserved meat. 36 00:01:50,200 --> 00:01:55,200 "But I think that sense of entitlement became a defining characteristic of what it meant to be an American." 37 00:01:55,520 --> 00:01:59,700 Right from the beginning we wanted meat, because it felt like America was teeming in this 38 00:01:59,790 --> 00:02:03,770 endless bounty of wildlife, land, and, uh – 39 00:02:03,770 --> 00:02:04,700 pigs. 40 00:02:04,700 --> 00:02:07,649 After Americans had settled down and got comfortable, 41 00:02:07,649 --> 00:02:10,830 farmers packed up been headed to the city – 42 00:02:10,830 --> 00:02:13,500 but urban Americans kept their appetite for meat. 43 00:02:13,500 --> 00:02:14,500 "That's important because 44 00:02:14,500 --> 00:02:20,530 city people don't produce their own food. Approximately 1810, about 7 percent 45 00:02:20,530 --> 00:02:23,000 of Americans lived in an urban place. 46 00:02:24,850 --> 00:02:25,380 By the time the Civil War broke out, 47 00:02:25,380 --> 00:02:26,700 almost a quarter of them did." 48 00:02:26,700 --> 00:02:29,700 Initially, people just ate less meat. 49 00:02:29,700 --> 00:02:32,540 It made sense – fewer farms meant less. 50 00:02:32,540 --> 00:02:35,680 But, urban Americans demanded more and cheaper meat 51 00:02:35,680 --> 00:02:39,780 and our modern industrial system obliged. By the late 1800s 52 00:02:39,780 --> 00:02:44,310 America had built up an extraordinarily large, lucrative, and efficient system 53 00:02:44,310 --> 00:02:45,700 for raising livestock 54 00:02:45,700 --> 00:02:47,300 turning them into meat, 55 00:02:47,300 --> 00:02:49,300 and distributing that meat to stores across the U.S. 56 00:02:50,320 --> 00:02:54,840 Meat traveled distances in hours –distances that once took weeks. 57 00:02:54,840 --> 00:02:58,680 Transportation and other technologies, like refrigeration, 58 00:02:58,680 --> 00:03:01,800 made meat cheaper and cities more attractive. 59 00:03:01,800 --> 00:03:04,100 And cheap meat is what Americans wanted. 60 00:03:04,100 --> 00:03:07,100 So what's the deal with Americans and meat? 61 00:03:07,270 --> 00:03:11,550 It's the idea that we're entitled to it – the sense that land and resources are 62 00:03:11,550 --> 00:03:13,350 plentiful and inexhaustible – 63 00:03:13,350 --> 00:03:16,430 and even if the US is consumption has decreased 64 00:03:16,430 --> 00:03:20,580 ever so slightly were still far more carnivorous than most. 65 00:03:20,580 --> 00:03:25,040 Most countries love meat – but we Americans have had such a full history with it, 66 00:03:25,040 --> 00:03:29,160 because it was – from the very beginning – cheap and available. 67 00:03:29,160 --> 00:03:30,400 and we've worked hard to keep it that way. 68 00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:33,400 "Meat is a whole lot like gasoline, 69 00:03:33,470 --> 00:03:37,500 the only time Americans really get upset about meat is if it suddenly seams unafforable 70 00:03:38,210 --> 00:03:42,700 and as soon as the prices go back down – well then no one's got any complaint." 71 00:03:42,700 --> 00:03:43,960 When Americans met meat, 72 00:03:43,960 --> 00:03:47,000 it was love at first sight. Now we have to figure out 73 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:50,700 how to live happily ever after.