I think the miscommunication that is occuring above is a result of reading the statistics incorrectly.
Based on the article that Yourmajesty cited above here is what’s true:
If you broke down the world population there would be a higher percentage of folks who do eat meat, compared to folks that do not. Ratios don’t matter at this point.
However in that same article it says while the number of vegetarians is not growing as rapidly as in the past, there is still a steady increase of people buying vegetarian products. Nowhere in that article did it say that the number of meat eaters is growing or increasing. In fact, if omnivores are increasing the number of vegetarian meals that they are eating than that would decrease the total amount of meat that their eating.
Example for additional clarity: If you eat 3 meals a day 7 days a week that gives you 21 total meals. If instead of eating 4oz meat at every meal {5 pounds 4 oz} you have a vegetarian dinner 2 nights out of the week you reduce your overall meat consumption {4 pounds 12 oz}
Here is another assumption that is skewed: If there is a cow lined up to go to the slaughter house, just because an emo kid from Connecticutt watches “Super-Size Me” and decides to become a vegetarian that cow is still going to die. True.
However, supply and demand is still the deciding factor. The Amercian meat industry does not like waste. If they over-produce cattle that meat isn’t left to rot. It get’s purchased at very low cost by the government which means lower profits. It is still costs $ to raise an animal to kill-age, so if the industry get’s a smaller return (commercial meat sales) on their investment (cost of feed/water/run-off maintenance/etc) the amount of beef raised is reduced the following fiscal year. This helps keep the market price consistent, but it hides the manipulation of the actual production numbers.
So, while emo kid’s lifestyle change may not have made a difference to that cow in the slaughterhouse, over the course of a year (and lifetime) his purchases do make a difference in meat production.
unless folks keep increasing their average portion size of meat as has happened over the past 40 years
Be thorough in your reivew of statistics, both PETA and the American Meat Industry are guilty of cherry picking data to enhance their argument, but the economic basics still stay the same.