UN report says global meat supply has risen fourfold in last 60 years and is expected to keep rising
The average person eats about six times as much chicken and twice as much pork as their grandparents’ generation did, data from a UN report suggests, with global meat supply having risen fourfold in the last 60 years and expected to keep rising.
The supply of poultry rose from below 3kg a person in 1961 to 17kg in 2022, according to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Pork supply doubled to 15kg a person over the same period, while beef, the most polluting food, stayed steady at 9kg.
Agriculture is the second most polluting sector of the global economy. Its planet-heating emissions are forecast to rise by 7.6% over the next decade, according to the FAO’s review of the science on the drivers of meat supply and demand, with livestock responsible for an estimated 80% of the increase.
I grew up eating chicken (broiler) about 2-3 times a week. Once at home, once or twice at school lunch. That adds up. In my country, the amount of chicken (broiler) people eat keeps raising, where as pork and beef lowers. This is mainly because of price, and bit of because people are starting to learn about the pollution and also because people here still think that birds or fish don’t feel pain, where pigs and cows do.
But few years ago, when I worked in a elder home’s kitchen, I learned that the elders Did Not Eat Chicken. Like really, didn’t eat it. They would eat it, but if someone, me or the nurses, said that it’s chicken, they would stop and only eat the veggies and potatoes/rice around the meal. Some nurses told me to just call it pork or fish, but it felt unethical to lie… They really should have just served other protein…
Lately chicken is starting to get more expensive than pork here. Chicken on discount vs pork on discount, pork is 2x cheaper per kilo.
Beef is still way more expensive though
I eat meat so rarely I haven’t checked the prices recently, but sounds very possible here too since they’re importing cheap pork from neighboring country while chicken is still grown here…
Both are grown locally here, but I think pork is imported sometimes and chicken almost never.