THE NEW CONSUMERS (Island Press, Washington 2004)
The Influence of Affluence on the Environment.
By Norman Myers & Jennifer Kent
Reviewed by Ken Setter

I am sure the authors have worthy intentions, however this book is destined to incense, infuriate, and generally annoy the crap out of animal rights activists.

I am not normally a stickler for so-called ‘politically correct’ language; I find it a trifle boring, yet I found the constant references to ‘nice juicy steaks’ more than a little annoying. The constant reference to beef, pork and poultry’ --- ‘nice juicy steaks’ --- likewise their advice to ‘chomp away’, and ‘eat heartily’ yet they seem not to know about pigs, chicken and cows. It is not a question of using ’politically correct’ language, it is rather, understanding that factory farms are places where pigs seldom touch the ground, and chickens live in cramped cages unable to flap their wings.

Meanwhile the cow, brown eyed and dribbling, stands deep in mud and filth, is force-fed with chemicals and grain pellets. Before, it was artificially inseminated, embryo transferred, genetically modified and cloned, implanted with computer chips and tagged, its movement monitored with satellite technology. Soon it will take the final journey where it will be scientifically disassembled and packaged using all the modern management techniques available to the owners of meat factories. Its component parts will be fed to people and other animals, nothing is wasted, hoofs horns, skin and hair become inputs to a myriad of industries, no waste, no litter, all contribute to the bottom line. The cow’s task in human society is to service an artificially manipulated consumer market. Cars, cows, TV’s and washing machines roll inexorably along a conveyer belt 24/7, all are commodities to be bought and sold, the market does not differentiate. None of this rates a mention.

There were times, whilst reading the book, I had to pull myself up, to remind myself that the authors are not the enemy. They are aware of the dangers, they warn of similar problems; we share a similar set of values. They do understand that, a steak a day overloads the arteries of life and even for early death. Cattle, livestock, as they call animals, pumping out 1/6th of global emissions of methane. Maybe I’m picky, but I don’t think we should ignore the suffering of modern factory farming so dismissively.

For an author of 18 books, to be so cavalier in light of the plight of animals under the factory farming system is a worry. It seems the link between environmentalists and animal rights people is still a bridge too far.

However the book is not without interest. It informs us that yesterday the worlds population increased by a quarter of a million people, one hundred years ago such an increase would have taken two weeks, just one indicator of the rate of change we face. Many of the worlds new quarter of a million will be the new consumers each busy emulating their western counterparts, busy gobbling up the benefits of Western civilisation, including obesity and heart disease.

One consequence of these changes is our institutions are being subverted, transformed, and dismantled; the political, economic, and environmental landscape is under threat from a rapacious global capitalism zealously roaming the world in search of new consumers and lower production costs.

There is an emerging consensus in economic circles that by 2020 China will have an economy larger than the USA, and an additional 20 years or so India should over take China as the worlds largest economy. It follows that together these and a hand full of other countries are destined to change the economic, political and environment of the entire globe.

Predictions, forecasting, and scenario planning are tenuous at best; China long since seen as ‘the prize’ draws even the most modest speculator into a twilight world governed as much by hope, desire, and greed as rational reflection. Western industrialists have salivated for the Chinese market, their 19th century cotton industry counterparts fantasised with the notion of ‘putting an extra inch on the Chinese shirt tail’, knowing that mass markets result in mass profits. Some, more cynical than I, might say the West’s 21st century bankers, industrialists, and developers are busy ripping the shirt off the Chinese backs.

Myers and Kent argue their case persuasively. They trace the consumption patterns of a new middle class in 20 developing countries, as they emulate the practices of the western affluence. The newly affluent desire all the bells and whistles western consumer capitalism has to offer. China is already the biggest market for Mercedes out side Germany.

Island Press, the books publisher, it draws its directors from a wide range of concerned organisations including The Wilderness Society (USA), and The Trust for Public Land and others. Myers and Kent have produced an interesting and informative study, pity about the language.