AS THE ROMANS SAY, "RARA SUNT CARA". RARE IS VALUABLE. (CHINA)

The changes in diet occurring in China carry rippling effects around the world. What China’s hungry for makes a difference, said Janet Larsen of the Earth Policy Institute, adding that, “when a few people jump it may cause a ripple, but when a billion people jump, it’s a major shockwave.”

This week, we will be momentarily going back in time in China to compare eating habits in the past to today's eating habits.

Sorry, it might not be all that fancy...

Last week we focused on the consumption trends in USA, this week we are focusing on an even bigger area and an even bigger problem. China now eats twice as much meat as the United States. This is evident in the diagram below. Meat consumption in China is increasing for various reasons and we will be inspecting the main reasons for this trend in today's post. 

Meat consumption compared between China and U.S.

China in 1980's:

Meat was seen as a luxury; each Chinese ate just 13kg of meat, the equivalent to one tenth of a pig a year. On the other hand, beef was so rare it was nicknamed "Millionaire's meat". 

As China started to emerge from a state of poverty, meat consumption increased. As the Romans say, "Rara Sunt Cara", Rare is valuable. Since China's incomes were, and still are increasing many traditional Chinese foods are being switched to the 'luxury foods'. Instead of rice, individuals are replacing this with meats. Beginning in the 1980s, officials enacted measures to promote livestock production, including support for development of a feed-milling industry and subsidized imports of more productive animal breeds. Such incentives has led to incorrect information in the economy and incorrect incentives; individuals became more enthusiastic about livestock production and began to see it positively.

Dinner would probably look something like this in 1980's

China today:

Currently, China is a big player not only on the demand side, but the supply side too. “China produces and consumes about half of the pork in the world,” Schuele said." Consumption and demand of meat is increasing as low income families gradually climb the ladder up to become middle income families. The meals an average Chinese middle income family is eating now, would be a feast to their parents. 

Moreover, Meat consumption is doubling every 10 years." In all, the country now eats more than 60m tonnes of meat a year; equivalent to 240 million cows, or 600 million pigs, or 24 billion chickens. These facts suggest a very large scale problem that is arising not only in the respects of greenhouse gases emitted in the process but also feed needed for the livestock. Since meat consumption is increasing, it has led to individuals noticing this trend and moving towards setting up small farms. A shift in those with household and small farm productions to larger scale meat factories. This seems to be showing a cyclical trend, in which higher demands lead to higher supply and this reduces prices, such that demand can increase even more.

A meal in China today

Benefits:

So far we have focused on the trends in meat production and consumption in China. Having read my previous posts, one can assume that the increasing trends are detrimental to the planet. It is true in some respects, but on a micro level, it has actually shown a big improvement to the Chinese people's lives.

In lifting 300 million people out of poverty over the past 30 years, China also saw an improvement in diets that made the country healthier. According to the World Food Programme, a six-year-old boy today in China is 6kg heavier and 6cm taller than his counterpart at the start of economic reforms in 1978.

Although it may be true that the health conditions of the people in China may have improved, this correlation may not be directly as a result of the consumption of meat. It could be argued that due to increasing incomes, families can now afford to buy more varieties of foods. In poorer areas of China, families may be eating the exact same foods at each meal; this means the nutrients absorbed would be very limited. By having higher incomes, more varied vegetables could be introduced into the Chinese diet instead of putting emphasis on the role of meat.

Beef:

Beef has not become as popular in China because cattle in feedlots gobble up about 7 pounds of grain for each pound of weight gain. For pigs, the feeding ratio is 3 to 1, and for chickens it is 2 to 1. With one fifth of the world's population and limited land and water supplies, China has had to rely heavily on the more-efficient forms of animal protein. 

This is good news for the environment since beef is the biggest contributor to global warming as discussed in previous posts. On the other hand, other meats have been a big hit in China instead.

Pork:

Over half of the world's pigs now live in China. By the end of the year, it is projected that there will be almost twice as many pigs in China as people in America. In the last few decades, China has developed the world's largest pork industry to feed a rising middle class. A quickly rising appetite for pork in China has fueled the sudden jump in production. In mid 1970s, an average Chinese citizen ate 8kg of pork a year. Now, each person eats about 39kg of pork a year. 

China has now overtaken American pork consumption

Poultry:

Poultry production never existed prior to 1978. Chicken flocks in China have grown rapidly. Since the raising of chickens are much simpler and easier than raising ruminants, China has been a big producer of Chickens. The demand and consumption of poultry is also growing.

Although some may perceive that consuming poultry is not as bad for the environment since chickens do not emit methane the way ruminants do, the main environmental concerns are derived from the chicken feed. According to earth-policy.org, more than 60% of the world soybean exports, nearly all from the United States, Brazil and Argentina, go to China. These crops are very often grown in highly unsustainable conditions; ways which involve deforestation which leads to a reduction of biodiversity. 

Sorry, you just can't win either way I'm afraid.

Happy Meatless Monday! Tune in next Monday for a new post on UK meat consumption trends!