What does "emotionally fraught" mean?
This is from Netflix's documentary series, "explained:The future of Meat". In the end of the video, each person interviewed for this episode gives like a final word they have to say and below is from one of them. This documentary is basically about how we've consumed meat over the years, plant-based burgers and the feasibility of them, and controversy over them etc.

Person A: "I know people don't like to think of food as technology, but it is."
Person B: "The idea of meat is a lot more **emotionally fraught** than the idea of a smartphone.
Meat is more than just the taste of the animal. Meat is identity, it is culture, it is the stories we tell ourselves."
(there's no relation between person A and B's comments. each person's interview was filmed separately. wrote it in case it's needed.)

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I'm not sure about the meaning of emotionally fraught here. I've looked up the dictionary and still not sure if it means "filled with"(What's "emotionally filled with" mean then?) or "anxious".
And what does the sentence mean as a whole?

Question

What does "emotionally fraught" mean?
This is from Netflix's documentary series, "explained:The future of Meat". In the end of the video, each person interviewed for this episode gives like a final word they have to say and below is from one of them. This documentary is basically about how we've consumed meat over the years, plant-based burgers and the feasibility of them, and controversy over them etc.

Person A: "I know people don't like to think of food as technology, but it is."
Person B: "The idea of meat is a lot more **emotionally fraught** than the idea of a smartphone.
Meat is more than just the taste of the animal. Meat is identity, it is culture, it is the stories we tell ourselves."
(there's no relation between person A and B's comments. each person's interview was filmed separately. wrote it in case it's needed.)

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I'm not sure about the meaning of emotionally fraught here. I've looked up the dictionary and still not sure if it means "filled with"(What's "emotionally filled with" mean then?) or "anxious".
And what does the sentence mean as a whole?

Answer

I can't give your answers a thumbs up since they're both comments, but completely understand now, thank you both so much.

Answer

Fraught means “accompanied with”. For example:

“Your exam is fraught with errors” is a valid sentence.

“The road ahead is fraught with danger” is also valid.

In this context, emotionally fraught simply means that the conversation is heavily affected by people’s feelings regarding the consumption of meat. Many people love meat and therefore reject plant based alternatives, and might even get upset when someone suggests that they should change their diet. This is not something that would happen if people were talking about smartphones. In that case, the conversation is emotionally neutral - people are able to have a reasonable discussion without getting hijacked by their emotions. The speaker is just making that distinction.

A good way of putting this, much more common in everyday English, is to say something is a “touchy subject”. If you say that something is a touchy subject, you mean that it should be talked about in a very sensitive way, because it might upset people.

Some examples:

“Don’t mention the recent election, it’s a touchy subject”

“Politics is a touchy subject”

“When you see her, don’t mention her recent exam, it’s a touchy subject”.

Hope that helps!

Answer

Hello, in this context emotionally fraught means 'causing distress or anxiety'. Therefore, the idea of meat (how it is obtained, by the killing of animals) makes people feel uncomfortable. Hopefully this helps a bit!