AP Full Length Test FRQ 1

The following is excerpted from a book about food production and consumption in the United States.

During WWI, 1 there were campaigns for Meatless Tuesday and Wheatless Wednesday to remind US citizens to reduce their consumption of foods in limited supply and to conserve food for the war effort. Meatless days were also encouraged during WWII 2 when meat, sugar, and other foods were rationed. These campaigns were effective in bringing US citizens together and sharing sacrifices for the war effort. During the 1960s when new nutrition

research linked certain foods with diseases, such as red meat and dietary fat with heart disease, public campaigns to reduce the intake of these foods were common. A new approach in public campaigning to influence food consumption was launched in 2003. Sid Lerner, an advertising agent, in collaboration with faculty at Johns Hopkins

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Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for a Livable Future, created the Meatless Monday campaign. The campaign was initially part of a Healthy Monday initiative to encourage people to give up bad habits from the weekend and start healthier habits at the beginning of the week. The Meatless Monday component of that initiative grabbed a great deal of attention. The platform of the Meatless Monday campaign is that Americans consume too

much meat and not eating meat one day a week will improve health. Reducing the impact of meat production on the environment also became part of the platform.

The Meatless Monday campaign gained substantial support from celebrities and is now a global movement. The Meatless Monday website (www.meatlessmonday.com) includes articles and promotional material to encourage groups to create Meatless Monday movements in their communities, schools, and workplaces. Recipes, diet ideas,

and suggestions for meatless meals are presented in blogs, magazines, websites, and newspapers by chefs, journalists, nutritionists, and celebrities. The journalist Michael Pollan stated on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2009 that if everybody in America participated in a Meatless Monday, it would have the equivalent effect on the environment of taking 20 million midsize sedans off the road. This statistic is difficult to verify but is easy to

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remember and repeat. Paul McCartney, 3 a vegetarian, and his daughters started a Meat Free Monday nonprofit organization with the aim of “. . . raising awareness of the detrimental environmental impact of eating meat, and to encourage people to help slow climate change, preserve precious natural resources and improve their health by having at least one meat free day each week” (www.meatfreemondays.com).

1 the First World War

2 the Second World War

3 English musician most famous as a member of the rock and roll band the Beatles

The following is excepted from a report published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

In terms of nutrition, livestock food products globally contributed an average of 17 percent of energy and 33 percent of protein to dietary intakes in 2003 (FAO, 2006b). There are stark differences between countries and country groups, with meat consumption ranging in 2003 from only 5 kg per person and year in India to 123 kg in the United States (FAO, 2006b). Because developing countries still have low intakes of animal food the share of livestock

products in the “global average diet” is expected to continue to rise to reach the OECD1 country averages of about 30 percent of dietary energy and 50 percent of protein intake. In terms of health and nutrition, therefore, livestock products are a welcome addition to the diets of many poor and under- or malnourished people who frequently suffer from protein and vitamin deficiencies as well as from lack of important trace minerals. Children in particular have shown to benefit greatly in terms of physical and mental health when modest amounts of milk, meat or eggs are added to their diets, as shown by long-term research carried out in Kenya (Neumann, 2003). In contrast, a large number of non-communicable diseases among the more wealthy segments of the world’s population are associated

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with high intakes of animal source foods, in particular animal fats and red meat: cardio-vascular disease, diabetes and certain types of cancer. While not being addressed by this assessment, it may well be argued that environmental damage by livestock may be significantly reduced by lowering excessive consumption of livestock products among

wealthy people. International and national public institutions (e.g. WHO2 and Tufts University, 1998) have consistently recommended lower intakes of animal fat and red meat in most developed countries. . . .

Livestock compete for crops but provide a buffer against grain shortages. In simple numeric terms, livestock actually detract more from total food supply than they provide. Livestock now consume more human edible protein than they produce. In fact, livestock consume 77 million tonnes of protein contained in feedstuff that could potentially be used for human nutrition, whereas only 58 million tonnes of protein are contained in food products that livestock supply. In terms of dietary energy, the relative loss is much higher. This is a result of the recent trend towards more concentrate-based diets for pigs and poultry, with nutritional requirements more similar to humans than ruminants. 3

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1 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

2 World Health Organization

3 Animals such as cattle, sheep, deer, etc.