WEBVTT 00:00:00.220 --> 00:00:02.400 Americans eat a lot of meat. 00:00:03.200 --> 00:00:04.400 We eat it for all meals for the day, 00:00:04.500 --> 00:00:06.379 Because it's the Fourth of July, 00:00:06.379 --> 00:00:09.800 because we're at a baseball game, and because, hey, it's on sale. 00:00:09.800 --> 00:00:12.990 We consume more of it then the rest of the world, 00:00:12.990 --> 00:00:17.440 and all that consumption has a big impact. If everyone ate meat like Americans, 00:00:17.440 --> 00:00:19.700 it would be a disaster. so what is it about us 00:00:19.700 --> 00:00:23.700 So what is it about us, that's turned America into a nation of carnivores? 00:00:23.700 --> 00:00:25.240 It could be our wealth – 00:00:25.240 --> 00:00:27.400 but there are other countries that are wealthier. 00:00:27.400 --> 00:00:29.400 It could be our farm subsidies – 00:00:29.420 --> 00:00:32.540 but lots of other countries have those too. I was curious – 00:00:32.540 --> 00:00:36.980 so I phoned a meat historian. 00:00:36.980 --> 00:00:40.930 "My name is Maureen Ogle, and I'm a historian." 00:00:40.930 --> 00:00:45.420 For seven years she researched meat and in the end, she wrote a book about it. 00:00:45.420 --> 00:00:47.000 This book. 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:49.469 So, why are we such meat fanatics? 00:00:49.469 --> 00:00:53.930 "One thing that's important to know about the people who settled North America, 00:00:53.930 --> 00:00:58.969 is that they all left a place that food was often scarce 00:00:58.969 --> 00:01:02.460 in a way that's nearly impossible for us to imagine now." 00:01:02.460 --> 00:01:06.460 In Europe land was in short supply and cities were growing rapidly. 00:01:06.460 --> 00:01:10.619 Only royalty ate meat regularly, because they were the only ones who had 00:01:10.619 --> 00:01:12.570 access to grazing land. 00:01:12.570 --> 00:01:16.530 In America, by contrast, the land was there for the taking 00:01:16.530 --> 00:01:18.000 – from the Native Americans. 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:20.000 Colonists didn't know how far west the West went. 00:01:21.520 --> 00:01:24.930 And with their legal structure, almost anyone could own livestock. 00:01:24.930 --> 00:01:29.540 "It was so easy for livestock to reproduce – within just a generation or two, 00:01:29.990 --> 00:01:34.930 colonists became accustomed to the notion that 00:01:34.930 --> 00:01:36.900 meat was always available 00:01:36.900 --> 00:01:38.790 and always on the table." 00:01:38.790 --> 00:01:42.610 There are cases where indentured servants complained or away because 00:01:42.610 --> 00:01:44.680 they weren't getting fed enough meat – 00:01:44.680 --> 00:01:48.380 and in general, the colonial legal system agreed – 00:01:48.380 --> 00:01:50.200 everyone deserved meat. 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." 00:01:55.520 --> 00:01:59.700 Right from the beginning we wanted meat, because it felt like America was teeming in this 00:01:59.790 --> 00:02:03.770 endless bounty of wildlife, land, and, uh – 00:02:03.770 --> 00:02:04.700 pigs. 00:02:04.700 --> 00:02:07.649 After Americans had settled down and got comfortable, 00:02:07.649 --> 00:02:10.830 farmers packed up been headed to the city – 00:02:10.830 --> 00:02:13.500 but urban Americans kept their appetite for meat. 00:02:13.500 --> 00:02:14.500 "That's important because 00:02:14.500 --> 00:02:20.530 city people don't produce their own food. Approximately 1810, about 7 percent 00:02:20.530 --> 00:02:23.000 of Americans lived in an urban place. 00:02:24.850 --> 00:02:25.380 By the time the Civil War broke out, 00:02:25.380 --> 00:02:26.700 almost a quarter of them did." 00:02:26.700 --> 00:02:29.700 Initially, people just ate less meat. 00:02:29.700 --> 00:02:32.540 It made sense – fewer farms meant less. 00:02:32.540 --> 00:02:35.680 But, urban Americans demanded more and cheaper meat 00:02:35.680 --> 00:02:39.780 and our modern industrial system obliged. By the late 1800s 00:02:39.780 --> 00:02:44.310 America had built up an extraordinarily large, lucrative, and efficient system 00:02:44.310 --> 00:02:45.700 for raising livestock 00:02:45.700 --> 00:02:47.300 turning them into meat, 00:02:47.300 --> 00:02:49.300 and distributing that meat to stores across the U.S. 00:02:50.320 --> 00:02:54.840 Meat traveled distances in hours –distances that once took weeks. 00:02:54.840 --> 00:02:58.680 Transportation and other technologies, like refrigeration, 00:02:58.680 --> 00:03:01.800 made meat cheaper and cities more attractive. 00:03:01.800 --> 00:03:04.100 And cheap meat is what Americans wanted. 00:03:04.100 --> 00:03:07.100 So what's the deal with Americans and meat? 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 00:03:11.550 --> 00:03:13.350 plentiful and inexhaustible – 00:03:13.350 --> 00:03:16.430 and even if the US is consumption has decreased 00:03:16.430 --> 00:03:20.580 ever so slightly were still far more carnivorous than most. 00:03:20.580 --> 00:03:25.040 Most countries love meat – but we Americans have had such a full history with it, 00:03:25.040 --> 00:03:29.160 because it was – from the very beginning – cheap and available. 00:03:29.160 --> 00:03:30.400 and we've worked hard to keep it that way. 00:03:30.400 --> 00:03:33.400 "Meat is a whole lot like gasoline, 00:03:33.470 --> 00:03:37.500 the only time Americans really get upset about meat is if it suddenly seams unafforable 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." 00:03:42.700 --> 00:03:43.960 When Americans met meat, 00:03:43.960 --> 00:03:47.000 it was love at first sight. Now we have to figure out 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:50.700 how to live happily ever after.