Deadly Harvest: The Intimate Relationship Between Our Heath and Our Food (13 page)

Within about 1,000 years of learning to farm plants, the first cultivators turned their attention to farming animals. They were fortunate that, still in the same location of the Fertile Crescent, there were several species of animal that were
capable
of being tamed and raised in captivity (a process known as “domestication”). This is an important point: as biologist and historian Jared Diamond shows, the absence of farmable plants and suitable animals in their locality held back many other societies around the world in the development of farming.

These early farmers, about 8000
b.c.
, found three creatures that lent themselves to taming and breeding in captivity: the “mouflon,” the “pasang,” and the wild boar. In 6000
b.c.
, this same ingenious people domesticated the massive aurochs, an ox-like creature that stood six feet high at the shoulder. All four species of animal had body compositions very similar to the wild game eaten by our ancestors of the Savanna Model. So far, so good.

Ever inventive, these New Stone Age farmers bred these animals to improve their value and usefulness. However, in doing so over the past 10,000 years, they and all farmers since changed the breed. The mouflon has been transformed into the sheep, the wild boar’s descendant is the pig, the aurochs became the smaller cow, and the pasang became today’s goat. As we shall see, with the exception of the goat, the changes were not beneficial.

In discussing meat, we tend to think of the muscle flesh—beef steaks, lamb chops, and pork spareribs. However, our ancestors would eat just about every part of the animal, from the brains, heart, and liver to the guts and the trotters. A few regional cuisines still make use of these so-called variety meats or offal. However, most of us get to eat them in another form. Ever since antiquity, these animal parts have been processed into sausages, pâtés, hamburgers, luncheon meats, and meat pies. The manufacturers of these products mostly have free license to mix-and-match all the animal parts as they see fit and add fat to “extend” them, bulk them up with low-cost ingredients. In no way can these products be compared favorably to the offal eaten by our ancient ancestors: they are from the wrong kind of creature and they are adulterated in many unknown ways. Worse, unlike our ancestral diet, we eat these processed meats in vast quantities on a daily basis rather than when there is the occasional kill. In addition, many meats, both generic and manufactured, are preserved by drying, salting, or smoking, such as bacon, salami, and bologna.

These processes certainly avoid sudden death from some nasty disease contracted from decaying meat. However, they do some necessary things in order to preserve the meat. For example, some (like bacon and salami) are soaked in salt. That keeps harmful bacteria under control, but the salt is detrimental to the human body. Most are fatty (which is not good in itself) and the fats and oils have to be converted into more stable varieties that do not go rancid—saturated fats. These are heart harmful and disrupt many other workings of the body.

The amount of wild meat that the average person in the developed world consumes in a year is close to zero. However, both in North America and in parts of Europe, the hunting of wild animals is still possible on a controlled, recreational basis. In this way, the meat of bear, moose, caribou, deer, wild boar, elk, and similar creatures enters the diets of some hunters’ families and the diners at specialist restaurants. This meat corresponds quite closely to the hunted big game of the Savanna Model. The same applies to small game such as the squirrel, hare, and rabbit.

We are beginning to see the introduction of some “managed” wild animals on the market, such as venison (from deer), kangaroo, antelope, and bison (Plains buffalo). These creatures are not strictly speaking domesticated—they breed according to their own inclinations and are allowed to roam relatively freely on a range that closely resembles their natural habitat. Their numbers are culled in a sustainable way and their meat is introduced into the food chain. The American researcher Loren Cordain considers that the meat from these animals is similar to the Savanna Model, with the proviso that they browse the naturally occurring vegetation and are not given commercial feed.
⁵⁹

White Meat and Game Birds (Fowl)

We saw how the San would catch various wild birds in traps and snares and even hunt the ostrich. Our lakeshore-inhabiting ancestors would have caught waterfowl too. Not surprisingly, fowl (by definition any wild bird) are relatively hard to catch and so they did not form a huge part of our ancestral diet. On the other hand, the USDA applies the term
poultry
to birds that are farmed.

Chicken, Turkey, Duck, Goose (Farmed)

It took quite a while before any farming community discovered how to tame and raise birds in captivity. The first was the chicken, which was domesticated from the red jungle fowl by the civilization in India around 4,000 years ago. Since then, chickens have become a familiar sight, ranging freely in farmyards all over the Old World.

Chicken—
After the World War I, intense efforts were made to industrialize the process of raising chickens. It was found that the chicken could survive being cooped up in batteries of tiny cages under controlled conditions of nutrition, light, heat, and humidity. Britain developed the first “battery farms” in the 1920s. In the United States, mass production of chicken meat took off after World War II. American consumption quadrupled from 14 pounds (boneless) per person annually in 1946 to 59 pounds annually in 2004.
⁶⁰
Today, the vast proportion of chicken eaten in the developed world is from intensively reared, caged birds; only a tiny proportion comes from a “free range” farmyard lifestyle.

Turkey—
Turkeys are native to large parts of North America. The Aztec of Mexico and the Zuni Indians of the American Southwest were the first to domesticate them. In 1519, the Spanish brought the Mexican species back to Europe. In 1621, the Pilgrims were able to put hunted wild turkey on the Thanksgiving table in New England. It was not until after World War II that turkeys were raised for meat on a wide scale. They, like chickens, are raised intensively in large covered sheds where they are crammed in so closely that they hardly have room to fall over. Their meat is now almost as cheap as chicken and American turkey consumption has quadrupled too, going from 3.5 pounds (boneless) per person annually in 1946 to 14 pounds annually in 2004.
⁶¹

Duck and Goose—Duck and goose consumption is minimal compared to chicken and turkey. Domestic ducks are descended from a hybrid of the Muscovy duck domesticated by Incas in Peru and the mallard duck domesticated by the Chinese some 2,000 years ago. Duck raising is practiced on a limited scale in most countries, usually as a small-farm enterprise, although large flocks of duck are bred in some areas of England, The Netherlands, and the United States. Geese are described as domesticated in the Egyptian and biblical writings of 3,000 years ago, but modern breeds are descended from the greylag, a wild goose of northern Eurasia. Geese have not attracted the attention of intensive farmers on the same scale as chickens and turkeys. Goose raising is a minor farm enterprise in practically all countries, but in central Europe and parts of France there is important commercial goose production. Notably in France, these birds are raised specially to make the fatty delicacy “pâté de foie gras,” made from the diseased livers of force-fed geese.

Game Fowl (Wild)

The early civilizations carried on the old traditions of hunting, trapping, and snaring fowl. The ancient Egyptians caught and ate ostrich, bustard, crane, dove, pigeon, duck, quail, partridge, pheasant, and goose. Birds associated with the gods were taboo, notably the falcon, the ibis (a kind of heron), and the vulture. The Greeks and Romans did not eat much fowl, although at feasts peacock, thrushes, and ring-dove might be served. However, we must remember that the food of the ordinary citizen was extremely frugal; banquets and feasts were for the few, the wealthy gentry.

Managed Game Birds—
Wild bird flesh corresponds closely to the Savanna Model. In addition, there is a large production of “managed” game to provide sport for shooting parties. These are predominantly pheasant, grouse, pigeon, partridge, and quail. (The partridge is related to the francolin hunted by the San.) However, often the managing techniques involve intensive feeding and the production of slow-flying birds. Their meat might well be closer to battery chicken quality than their wild counterparts.

Ostrich and Emu—
We are beginning to see some ranching of large flightless birds, notably ostrich and emu. The ostrich is the same species as the ostrich of our African homeland and hunted by the San; it can stand up to 8 feet high. The emu, from the savannas of Australia, is a slightly smaller bird, but still stands up to 6 feet high; it has flesh similar to the ostrich. Provided the farming of these creatures does not intensify (like it has for the chicken), their meat is in conformity with the Savanna Model.

Eggs

Eggs formed a regular part of our ancestors diet whenever they could find them. Of course, they were not restricted in the species of bird—anything from guinea fowl eggs to ostrich eggs would do just fine. Being in the tropics, the seasons did not vary much throughout the year, so there was usually the egg of some bird or another available most of the time for the San.

Farmed—
The first farmers had to go looking for wild eggs. The Fertile Crescent is outside the tropics (it is about the same latitude as Washington, D.C.) and mostly eggs only came along in spring. It was not until chickens were domesticated that eggs were “farmed”: wherever the chicken arrived, the hen’s egg arrived too. In due course, as duck, goose, and turkey were domesticated, these creatures were bred for their eggs as well. Today, with the enormous advantage of price and the massive volume of battery-hen production, it is the hen’s egg that totally dominates the food supply. Does this matter? Are there significant differences between battery-farmed hen’s eggs and wild eggs from a variety of birds? We will see later that there are differences, but not necessarily the ones we think.

Wild—
The gathering of wild eggs today is greatly restricted by government regulation in most developed countries. However, the eggs of many species are available in small quantities as a by-product of the management of game birds. In this way, eggs from quail, pigeons, gulls, lapwings, plovers, pheasants, and ostriches are available to culinary enthusiasts. We must also mention eggs from reptiles: eggs from crocodiles and turtles would have been quite common in the diet of our African Pleistocene ancestors. Turtles lay eggs in prodigious numbers in sandy shorelines, and collecting and commercializing them has become a major industry in Malaysia. Wild eggs in general form a tiny part of consumption in the developed world and, with the possible exception of quail eggs, most people have never even seen one.

Seafood (Fish and Shellfish)

Our ancient ancestors certainly consumed fish and shellfish on a modest scale—up to 12% of calories according to Michael Crawford, professor of nutrition at London Metropolitan University.
⁶²
As we saw in chapter 1, fish were speared and trapped as the occasion presented itself. Pleistocene man (or more likely women) easily collected shellfish along the shoreline of African lakes and rivers.

Farmed—
Early civilizations took a long time to learn to farm fish. Carp originated in China and have been raised in ponds and rice paddies there for 3,000 years. From about 500
b.c.
, the ancient Egyptians raised fish in specially built ponds. The main species was Nile perch, a variety of tilapia, which is still commonly available today. Carp cultivation has spread all over the world, notably central Europe, but it was always on the scale of the village pond or its equivalent. It was not until the 1960s that fish farming or “aquaculture” came of age. Since then, salmon, trout, catfish, and tilapia have been farmed on an industrial scale. They have almost completely displaced their wild counterparts from our tables. Less commonly farmed are carp, mullet, redfish, and sea bass. Efforts are already under way to farm tuna, cod, sea bream, and turbot in vast enclosed offshore pens.

The farming of shellfish, mainly mussels, oysters, shrimps, and prawns, has been carried out on a minor scale for centuries in Europe and Japan. Again, since the 1970s, rapid advances in technology have allowed the farm production of shrimp and prawns to explode. They have elbowed out the wild variety. The farming of clams, crayfish, oysters, and mussels is also growing fast.