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According to the USDA, beef consumption in the United States alone in 2008 was 27.3 billion pounds. As the population and demand for meat grow around the world, producing meat sustainably will be a necessity. People need to shift intake of certain animal proteins. For instance; lamb, goat, and beef are grain-inefficient. Shifting towards more grain-efficient animal proteins such as chicken and fish can help produce meat more sustainably.

The grain-inefficient livestock graze on rangeland use resources that humans can not eat, and most of the land used in livestock grazing is not suitable for growing crops. Shifting to grain-efficient animals can help reduce the overgrazing. Thus reducing the environmental effects caused by overgrazing of livestock. The grain-efficient animals such as chicken requires less space and food compared to beef and lamb.

Harvesting fish and shellfish can also increase the meat production. Advanced technologies and methods can be used to collect and store more fish. However, the increased dependence of fish and shellfish has its own disadvantages. It can cause over fishing that can result in commercial extinction of some fish and shellfish disrupting aquatic life. Some of the methods used in fishing can potentially destroy the ocean floor habitat. Over fishing and degradation of ocean floor habitat can result in lower overall yields. Finally, trying to catch more fish can also trap and kill unwanted fish and marine mammals such as Dolphins and Seals. This can create unbalance in the aquatic life in the ocean.

You may have already heard that eating meat is not eco friendly. However, everyone may not like the idea of being completely a vegetarian. In such case, we should at least try to adapt sustainable meat production to reduce our impact on the environment.