Good work G.

More here -

obesityhealthalliance.org.uk/2025/11/25/o...

I know I've said this already, but the UK ruminant herd, and beef consumption, have been in steady decline for the past two decades and are declining at a rate that exceeds the UK Climate Change Committee's pathway to net zero - I think you're conflating 'very difficult' with 'impossible'.. 🤷‍♂️

I don't think that's a view supported by evolutionary or anthropological evidence. Animal foods seem to be consistently highly prized/tabbooed, both across societies and human history, but there's no evidence that an ever-escalating appetite is hard-wired or innate..

I agree, not in an absolute sense. But its expression is socially constructed, its range and intensity. Which would suggest an intrinsic malleability. (Something for us climate mitigation folk to work with!)

(and of course there's an important psychological dimension - I can recommend you a book on that 😉)

Sure, I'm not proposing a plant-only baseline for any population. But there's a reason Americans are eating pigs and not dogs, cows and not horses, and why demand for beef is so persistently high - and that reason is entirely cultural and political. Not biological or intrinsic.

I guess one could argue that this "appetite" is socially constructed, and actively cultivated by industry, and can therefore be altered (as in Germany, for example). But I know, easier said than done...

UK ruminant populations 'peaked' a while back and have been in steady decline for years. Lots of reasons, good and bad, but declines are entirely feasible with the right political and economic incentives.

Interesting take on the question of controlling for energy density here -

www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...