Multi-scaled Environmental and Social Impacts from Meat Demand in the New York Megacity

This project attempts to examine trends in meat production, distribution and consumption and the associated environmental and social impacts. We define environmental impacts by scale; local, regional and global. Local impacts include changes to the urban ecosystem biogeochemical cycles (particularly nitrogen, carbon and phosphorous). Regional impacts include water consumption, water quality degradation and land use change in the tri-State area. Global impacts include greenhouse gas emissions from meat production and land and water use burdens associated with imports. We also calculate the total amount of energy necessary to produce, supply and consume all meats.

Social impacts are viewed at the local level and largely include analyses of differential access to different types of meat (live, fast food, organic, conventional cut). Analyses include differential access to these different types for beef, pork, chicken and lamb by income and ethnicity. The project is on-going. Preliminary analyses for some aspects are currently available.