Clichés

'Thing's aren't always as they seem', they say - and, 'travel expands the mind' - and, 'it's good to step out of your comfort zone' - and, 'we live in a global village; it's such a small world' - and, 'globalisation is making the third world Western: development will come at a high cost to the planet because this is unsustainable'.

And so on and so forth. Sometimes, it seems the world is like an open book, teaching lessons in an instant that would otherwise take ages of struggle with reams of words.

Take for example this issue of meat. Increasing middle class lifestyles are a corollary to development in the third world, it is argued, leading to increased consumption of meat in imitation of Western lifetyles. This increased demand for meat spells doom for the agricultural industry: animal husbandry is a lot more wasteful than cultivation of crops, since it takes more land to cultivate crops for animal feed. This, coupled with the metabolism of commercial farm animals (specifically cattle), also contributes to global greenhouse emissions. So the problems of increased meat consumption are manifold - increased food insecurity, famine for the poor, environmental degradation and struggles over diminishing land which may easily become violent, causing conflict in already fragile areas. What is the solution? To eat less meat?

The problem is that meat tastes so good. I'm not so sure meat is an acquired Western taste for the majority of people in the world. Being here where meat is so scarce (because it is so expensive) and I am eating very minimal amounts of meat (and very rarely beef) has led me to the conclusion that the taste for meat is a primeval one, latent in most people, and the reason many people in the third world do not eat meat (other than those for whom it is proscribed for religious reasons) is because meat is so expensive. The growing middle class do not eat more meat in an aping of Western lifestyles, they do it because they can finally afford it, and it tastes so good.

Clearly, the solution to the issues outlined earlier are much more complex than simply coercing, manipulating, or otherwise imploring a mass conversion to vegetarianism. More equitable relationships between people, better land rights for the poorest, and other policies to reduce insecurity of the most basic of human necessities for the vulnerable (food, clothing and shelter: not just from the elements but also from those who would seek to exploit them and from violence) -in baser terms, a piece of the pie for everyone- or, if you would like, justice, are much trickier, but ultimately more sustainable -and feasible- not to talk of effective, solutions.