Meat Production and Consumption Grow

DANIELLE NIERENBERG / Vital Signs 2003 May03

The world’s appetite for meat continues to grow, with 242 million tons produced in 2002—an increase of 2.5 percent from 2001.1 (See Figure 1.) Meat production has doubled since 1977, and over the last half-century it has increased fivefold.2 Production of beef, poultry, pork, and other meats has risen to nearly 40 kilograms per person, more than twice as much as was available in 1950.3 (See Figure 2.)

Consumers in industrial nations eat more than 80 kilograms of meat per person, most of it from pork and poultry, compared with just 28 kilograms for people in developing countries.4 In fact, people in industrial nations eat three to four times as much meat as people living in developing countries.5

Yet two thirds of the gains in meat consumption in 2002 occurred in developing countries, where urbanization, rising incomes, and the globalization of trade are changing diets and increasing per capita consumption of meat.6 And as developing countries climb up the “protein ladder,” they have overtaken industrial nations as meat producers by accounting for 56 percent of production— an increase of 5 percent since 1995.7

Pork production reached over 93 million tons in 2002, followed by poultry production (72 million tons), and beef (60 million tons).8 Other types of meat, including sheep and goat meat, accounted for 16 million tons of the total output.9 (See Figure 3.)

Pigs dominate meat production and consumption in China—half of the world’s pigs are raised and eaten there.10 The United States produces and consumes the most poultry in the world, and Brazil is the world’s largest producer of beef and its second-largest consumer, behind only the United States.11

Since the early 1960s, the number of livestock has increased 60 percent, from 3 billion to more than 5 billion, and the number of fowl has quadrupled from 4 billion to 16 billion.12 Industrial feedlots are the most rapidly growing production system for these animals, producing 43 percent of the world’s beef and more than half of the world’s pork and poultry.13 These “factory farms” are also responsible for huge amounts of manure and air pollution and for the overuse of antibiotics as crowded conditions encourage the rapid spread of disease. Producing meat requires large amounts of grain—most of the corn and soybeans harvested in the world are used to fatten livestock. 14 Producing 1 calorie of flesh (beef, pork, or chicken) requires 11–17 calories of feed. So a meat eater’s diet requires two to four times more land than a vegetarian’s diet.15

Soybeans, wheat, rice, and corn also produce three to eight times as much protein as meat.16 The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization predicts that meat production will grow to more than 300 million tons by 2020.17 Environmental and health concerns could be a constraint on that, however. Manure from hog factories, chicken houses, and feedlots for cattle can contaminate groundwater and rivers and can pollute the air.18 Cattle also contribute to climate change by emitting methane gas, and overgrazing has decimated once fertile and productive grasslands from Africa to Latin America.19

Meat recalls, foot-and-mouth disease, and mad cow disease (BSE—bovine spongiform encephalopathy) have increased concerns about the safety of eating meat. During the summer of 2002, millions of pounds of contaminated beef and other meat products were recalled by the U.S. government.20 In Japan, beef consumption has been declining since the first case of BSE was reported there in 2001.21 Concerns over drug residues in poultry led to market closures for U.S.-produced chicken in the Russian Federation.22

In the United States, high rates of obesity, heart disease, cancer, and other diseases associated with high-fat, high-cholesterol diets have led some people to shun red meat in favor of chicken and others to give up meat entirely. The popularity of grass-fed and organic meats is also rising as consumers realize the high health and environmental costs of meat raised in factory farms.23

	Total 
Year 	(million  Per Person
	 tons)	  (kilograms)
1950 	 44 	    17.2
1955 	 58 	    20.7
1960 	 64 	    21.0
1965 	 84 	    25.2
1970 	100	    27.1
1971 	105 	    27.6
1972 	108 	    27.8
1973 	108 	    27.5
1974 	114 	    28.3
1975 	116 	    28.3
1976 	118 	    28.5
1977 	122 	    28.9
1978 	127 	    29.6
1979 	133 	    30.2
1980 	137 	    30.6
1981 	139 	    30.7
1982 	140 	    30.4
1983 	145 	    30.9
1984 	149 	    31.2
1985 	154 	    31.8
1986 	160 	    32.3
1987 	165 	    32.8
1988 	171 	    33.5
1989 	174 	    33.4
1990 	180 	    34.0
1991 	184 	    34.3
1992 	187 	    34.4
1993 	192 	    34.8
1994 	199 	    35.4
1995 	205 	    36.0
1996 	207 	    35.8
1997 	215 	    36.8
1998 	223 	    37.6
1999 	229 	    38.1
2000 	232 	    38.2
2001 	237 	    38.6
2002*	242 	    39.0

* Preliminary
Source: U.N. Food and Agriculture
Organization.

References

1. U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), FAOSTAT Statistical Database, at <apps.fao.org>, updated 9 January 2003; idem, “Meat and Meat Products,” Food Outlook No. 4, October 2002, p. 11.

2. FAO, FAOSTAT Statistical Database, op. cit. note 1.

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid.

5. Christopher Delgado et al., Livestock to 2020: The Next Food Revolution (Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute, 1999), p. 1.

6. FAO, FAOSTAT Statistical Database, op. cit. note 1.

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid.

11. Ibid.

12. Ibid.

13. Cees de Haan et al., “Livestock & the Environment: Finding a Balance,” Report of a Study Coordinated by FAO, U.S. Agency for International Development, and World Bank (Brussels: 1997), p. 53.

14. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Production, Supply, and Distribution, electronic database, Washington, DC, updated 27 November 2002.

15. Vaclav Smil, Department of Geography, University of Manitoba, Canada, discussion with Brian Halweil, October 2002.

16. FAO, FAOSTAT Statistical Database, op. cit. note 1.

17. Ibid.

18. De Haan et al., op. cit. note 13, pp. 54–55.

19. Ibid., pp. 17–18.

20. USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, at <www.fsis.usda.gov/index.htm>, viewed 2 August 2002; Greg Winter, “Beef Processor No Stranger to Troubles,” New York Times, 20 July 2002.

21. FAO, FAOSTAT Statistical Database, op. cit. note 1.

22. Ibid.

23. Kim Severson, “Grassroots Revolution—Will the New Beef Put Corn-raised Cattle Out to Pasture?” San Francisco Chronicle, 19 June 2002.