News in brief: An outlook report predicts a decline in meat consumption in wealthy Western countries due to increasing concerns about animal welfare, environmental impacts, and health. Also, it projects a shift towards poultry and a dip in meat consumption in Europe, North America, and Oceania. However, rising incomes and population growth are expected to drive a 2% per-capita increase in global meat consumption over the next decade.
A recent report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) projects that meat consumption in Western countries will drop in the coming decade.
The report was part of global food and inter-governmental bodies’ Agricultural Outlook for 2023-32. It indicates a dwindling trend in meat consumption in high income nations because consumers are becoming more sensitivity towards animal welfare, environmental impacts and health concerns.
The analysis highlights a noticeable trend of stagnation in meat consumption in most wealthy countries and predicts poultry will supply 41% of meat protein in 2032, because of its low carbon imprints. Already, member countries of the European Union are showing a shift from beef and pork to poultry. Also, North America and Oceania, who are traditional meat-consuming strongholds, will show a significant dip in per-capita consumption during the period under consideration.
These nations, despite making up about one-sixth of the global population, account for about one-third of the total meat consumed worldwide.
The report expects rising incomes and population growth to lead to a 2% per-capita increase in global meat consumption over the upcoming 10 years. Meanwhile, analysts expect global meat consumption will continue to grow until 2075.
However, factors like demographic trends, human health, animal welfare and environmental concerns could negatively influence meat consumption in the long term. Thus, it is expected that world meat demand would start to fall during the remainder of the century.
