   |  | | A bad deal for developing nations | By Mike Magee, MD
Over the past decade, leaders in Global Health have helped us understand the concept of a dual burden of disease.1 In short, this refers to infectious diseases that often emerge from the developing world (as a byproduct of poverty, famine, lack of access to clean, safe water and forced migration tied to warfare) on the one hand; and chronic diseases emerging from the developed world (as a result of tobacco marketing, cancer and obesity inducing diets, and pollution) on the other. Globalization with the export of conditions such as Bird Flu and resistant TB in one direction and the export of Marlboro advertising and the "modern diet" in the reverse direction, have assured that we soon will all share the worst of both worlds.
A particular case in point of this phenomenon is U.S. factory farming and the exportation of the modern American diet. First, a disclaimer: The success of modern farming is undeniable. It has been reliably estimated that natural farming independent of any of the high yield interventions of the past century would provide enough food to feed approximately 600 million worldwide, not the 6 billion we currently support. And even with this there are some 700 to 800 million undernourished global citizens.2 That is not to say, however, that there have not been tradeoffs in environmental contamination and a steady march toward high-protein, high-corn, high-processed and high-consumption foods, which translate reliably into chronic obesity and chronic disease. Just as the UN and the WHO rightly sounded the alarm when U.S. tobacco companies turned their marketing machine overseas, there is now the same need to sound the alarm on export of our unhealthy diet.3
Let's take a look at meat as a case in point. In the United States, meat shares a protected status with oil, receiving increasing federal subsidies as control has centralized, prices have climbed and worldwide demand has grown. Beef today is built on corn and to a lesser extent soy beans on factory farms with huge confined animal-feeding operations. These assembly line operations consume enormous amounts of water, energy and food additives, including antibiotics, while producing significant pollutants and greenhouse gases. Where it used to take 5 years plus to bring a cow to slaughter, it now takes only 18 months of force feeding, growth enhancements and animal antibiotics to partially counteract the erosive effects of subjecting the cows' rumen to difficult-to-digest but fast-fattening corn rather then natural grain feed.4,5
The world's total meat production in 1961 was 71 million tons, while today it approaches 300 million tons annually. Worldwide per capita consumption during that 50-year period roughly doubled, and is expected to double again in the next 40 years. The rate of increased consumption of beef is growing fastest in the developing world. But for sheer over-consumption, it's hard to beat Americans. We each consume an average of 8 ounces a day of meat, about twice the global average. Fifty years ago, we consumed about 50 pounds of meat, poultry and fish per person per year. Today we consume almost 200 pounds. That's about 110 grams of protein a day, which is twice the recommended amount and close to three times what we probably need.6
Our factory farms provide 15% of the world's meat, in spite of the fact that we are only 5% of the world's population. In numbers, we grow and take to slaughter 10 billion animals a year. Some of that production is exported to developing nations, where a portion of the growing wealth has been directed at higher protein diets. But the waste from our factory farms can not be readily exported. Our U.S. livestock produces together approximately 3 tons of manure for each American per year. This helps explain why nearly three quarters of the water quality problems in our nation's rivers and streams are agriculture-related. There is also the issue of deforestation. Factory protein farms require corn-fed animals for speedy, if not healthy growing animals. Meeting the growing demand of factory farms and ethanol producers for corn requires more fields. To create fields, you must clear the trees and natural vegetation. This eliminates plant life that is extremely effective in removing carbon from the atmosphere.6
Worldwide, livestock production is estimated to be responsible for nearly 20% of greenhouse gases. Moving back down the "modern diet" trail from beef to chicken to grain, therefore, has predictable and positive environmental benefits. The National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Japan estimated that consumption of 2.2 pounds of beef results in the release of as much carbon dioxide as on a 155-mile car trip, and consumes (in the creation and delivery of that beef to you) as much energy as required to light a 100-watt incandescent bulb for 100 hours.6,7 Then there is the issue of water consumption. 70% of water-use worldwide is the result of agricultural use. While it takes 1.5 units of water to produce 1 unit of grain, it takes 6 units for 1 unit of chicken and 15 units for 1 unit of beef.8
Finally, it is quite clear that as the United States and other developed nations have shifted increasingly from grains to corn-based processed foods and meats, our rates of chronic disease (including diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, strokes and certain cancers) have escalated. And now, we have these chronic diseases, riding on the back of diet-induced childhood obesity, invading the young and middle aged at alarming rates.9
So what should we do?
1. We need to push public education as it relates to food. We need to be far more sophisticated and enlightened when it comes to understanding what's in our diet and how it got there, and what the costs and benefits of each type of food are, including the impact on our environment.
2. We need to begin to shift back to grains. We've clearly over-shot on protein and on portion size, both of which could be cut in half with room to spare.
3. We should be very careful not to support the export of the "American diet" to developing nations. We do them no favor, and could do them much harm.
References
1. 15th Annual GHEC Conference. Crossroads in Global Health: Dual burden of infectious and chronic disease. 19 April 2006.
2. United Nations. Water for People, Water for Life. The United Nations World Water Development Report. Paris. UNESCO Publication. 2003.
3. WHO Press Release. "Kobe Declaration" calls for a halt to the tobacco menace among women and children. 18 Nov. 1999.
4. Magee M. Corn fed America. Health Politics. 25 April 2007.
5. Pollan M. Omnivore's Dilemma. New York: The Penguin Press, 2006.
6. Bittman M. Rethinking the meat guzzler. New York Times. Week In Review. 1. 27 Jan. 2008.
7. Fanelli D. Meat is murder on the environment. New Scientist.com. 18 Aug. 2007.
8. Magee M. Healthy Waters: What Every Health Profession Should Know About Water. Spencer Books. 2006. NY, NY.
9. Magee M. Exercise and Childhood Obesity. Health Politics.
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