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Canadian men, more than women, consider meat one of life’s greatest pleasures and older men in particular think nothing compares to a good steak, a new survey finds.

For beef farmers, that’s about where the good news ends.

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According to a new survey on Canada’s “protein wars,” 6.4 million Canadians have already restricted or eliminated meat from their diets, while a third of the population intends to do so in the next six months.

But the survey paints a conflicting picture of our attachment to meat and willingness to embrace chickpeas over sirloin, with three-quarters strongly or somewhat agreeing that, “as humans, it is natural to eat meat” and that eating meat is part of “a natural and balanced diet.”

“It appears that Canadians are still somewhat attached to meat consumption, generally speaking,” said principal investigator Sylvain Charlebois, a professor in food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University. “But more and more Canadians are reconsidering their relationship with animal-based protein,” he said.