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Consumption of meat and dairy product growing in developing countries
One harmful consequence of economic growth in developing countries is the environmental effects of changes in dietary habits.
People in developing countries currently consume on average one-third the meat and one-quarter of the milk products per capita compared to the richer North, but these differences in consumption patterns are rapidly converging. As the developing countries become more prosperous the consumption of meat and dairy products will increase. By 2020, developing countries will consume 107 million metric tons (mmt) more meat and 177 mmt more milk than they did in 1996/1998. The projected increase in livestock production will require annual feed consumption of cereals to rise by nearly 300 mmt by 2020. These dietary changes also create serious environmental problems.
According to a 2006 United Nations initiative, the livestock industry is one of the largest contributors to environmental degradation worldwide, and modern practices of raising animals for food contributes on a massive scale to deforestation, air and water pollution, land degradation, loss of topsoil, climate change, the overuse of resources including oil and water, and loss of biodiversity.
Especially concerning consequence of the growing consumption (and production) of meat and dairy products in developing countries is the resulting significant growth in greenhouse gas emissions. Belching cattle, such as cows, emit methane which has roughly 23 times the global-warming potential of CO2. Combining the most significant emission sources, it is estimated that output of one kilogram of beef will result in 36-kilogram emission of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, which is equivalent to the amount of emissions of an average car every 255 kilometres.
Christopher L. Delgado Rising Consumption of Meat and Milk in Developing Countries Has Created a New Food Revolution Journal of Nutrition 133:3907S-3910S, November 2003
http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/133/11/3907S
Fiala, Nathan: The greenhouse hamburger. Scientific American; Feb2009, Vol. 300 Issue 2, p72-75, 4p
“Meat consumption reduction urged for better environment protection” http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-04/13/content_7969665.htm
“Meat production \'beefs up emissions\'” http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/jul/19/climatechange.climatechange
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_vegetarianism
Opportunity: Big business opprortunity for vegetable food manufacturers and artificial meat producers
Threat: Environmental and health problems if developing nations adopt the dietary habits of the industrialized countries
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