Meat consumption increases with higher living standards and income levels. Wealthy countries like Australia and the USA consume the most meat, while low-income countries like India consume the least. Meat is an important source of nutrition globally, and demand has increased over the past 60 years. While the population doubled in the last 60 years, the consumption of meat has quadrupled.
People want protein.
Developing countries have increased dairy production by increasing the number of animals. Milk and dairy consumption increases with higher living standards, and richer countries tend to consume more per person. Over the past 30 years, milk and dairy production worldwide has increased by 59%.
Livestock counts are the number of live animals at any given time, and the global number of producing animals; the “top 6”, being chicken, pig, turkey, sheep, goat and cattle, has reached 80 billion due to growing demand for meat, milk and dairy. Even if the global human population were to stop growing at 8 billion, production would continue to increase as demand rises. This number is expected to grow substantially in the future due to increasing demand and a growing global population.
The Earth’s surface consists of 71% saltwater and 29% land surface, which measures 149 million square kilometres. However, only 106 million square kilometres of this land surface is suitable for human purposes, with just 1% being built-up urban areas. Half of all habitable land surface is used for agriculture to meet the demand for protein. Humankind uses 1.5 million square kilometres of land for living, working, and moving around, which is roughly the size of a large country like Libya. However, agriculture needs a staggering 51 million square kilometres to feed the global population, which is 34 times larger than the land surface used by humans. The land surface used for livestock, including grazing land and cropland for animal feed, accounts for 37 million square kilometres, which is equivalent to the land surface of North and South America combined.
69000
Million
consumed chickens
1500
Million
consumed pigs
656
Million
consumed turkeys
574
Million
consumed sheep
People want protein.
Global meat demand and production have increased more than 4-fold since 1961, with Asia experiencing a staggering 15-fold increase in production. Pig meat remains the most popular meat, accounting for 35-40% of global meat production, while the share of poultry meat has tripled to 35% over 60 years. In 2018, humankind consumed an estimated 69 billion chickens, 1.5 billion pigs, 656 million turkeys, 574 million sheep, 479 million goats, and 362 million cattle. The total number of producing animals for protein is estimated to be over 80 billion, which is more than 10 times the global human population of 8 billion.
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