Meat Output and Consumption Grow

by Danielle Nierenberg

In 2006, meat production increased 2.5 percent to an estimated 276 million tons; output is expected to rise another 3 percent in 2007 to 285 million tons.1 (See Figure 1.) Developing countries produced more meat and dairy products than industrial countries for the first time in 1995.2 At least 60 percent of meat in 2006 was produced in developing nations.3

Consumption of meat and other animal products also continues to grow. While 43 kilograms of meat are produced annually per person at the moment, however, meat consumption still varies widely by region and socioeconomic status.4 In the developing world, people eat about 32 kilograms of meat per year, compared with almost 85 kilograms per person in the industrial world.5 (See Figure 2.)

Due mainly to the spread of avian flu and the culling of birds and burning of meat, global poultry output rose only slightly in 2006 to approximately 83 million tons, roughly a 1-percent increase from the preceding year.6 Beef output rose by 2.5 percent, with nearly 66 million tons produced in 2006.7 The United States is the largest beef producer, although developing nations account for 55 percent of the total.8

Pork production grew by 3 percent to 108 million tons, more than any other meat.9 (See Figure 3.) This increase is likely due to shifting meat consumption patterns in Asia as people switch from chicken to pork due to concerns about avian flu.10 China continues to be the world’s largest producer of pig meat, but several South American nations, including Brazil—which accounts for nearly 70 percent of pork output in the region—as well as Chile and Mexico, are increasing their production facilities.11

Much of the growing demand for animal products is being met by large-scale intensive industrial systems (factory farms).12 These facilities rely on commercial breeds of livestock, usually pigs and chickens, that have been bred to gain weight quickly on soybeans and corn. Factory farms are very crowded and confine animals in close quarters. Many of the world’s 17 billion hens and meat chickens are given an area less than the size of a sheet of paper to live in, while cattle in feedlots often stand kneedeep in manure and arrive at slaughterhouses covered in feces.13

These operations are increasingly located in or near urban markets in developing countries, making cities the center of industrial meat production. Although city dwellers have kept livestock for centuries to help deal with urban waste as well as to provide income and food, industrial operations can create a host of environmental and public health problems, including the spread of diseases such as avian flu.14

Livestock are also the “single largest anthropogenic user of land,” according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.15 Meat production accounts for 70 percent of all agricultural land and 30 percent of the land surface of the planet.16 In the Amazon, 70 percent of previously forested land is occupied by pastures for cattle and much of the remaining 30 percent is used to grow soybeans and other feed crops.17

In addition, livestock are responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (as measured in carbon dioxide equivalent), which is higher than the share contributed by cars and sport utility vehicles.18 And livestock account for 37 percent of emissions of methane, which has more than 20 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide, and for 65 percent of nitrous oxide, another powerful GHG, most of which comes from manure.19

Livestock are major water users and polluters as well. The irrigation of feed crops for cattle accounts for nearly 8 percent of global human water use.20 Compounding the contamination of rivers and streams from the runoff of manure from feedlots, livestock waste can contaminate soil and groundwater with a cocktail of hormones, pesticides, and antibiotics used in factory farms.21 One way to prevent some of these problems is by raising livestock in areas with enough land to handle the waste from large operations. Thailand, for example, has levied high taxes on poultry production within a 100-kilometer radius of Bangkok while exempting farmers outside that zone.22 Over the last decade, poultry production near Bangkok dropped significantly.23

Includes the following charts and graphs
World Meat Production, 1961-2006
World Meat Production Per Person and Consumption Per Person in Industrial and Developing Countries, 1961-2006
World Meat Production by Source, 2006

Notes
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