The global average meat consumption in 2006 was 100 grams per person per day, which varied from 200-250 g in rich countries to 20-25 g in poor countries. At least 10% of meat production was not consumed, though.
Posted by envirostats on Tuesday, September 18, 2007
100 g = 3.5 ounces
200-250 g = 7.1 to 8.8 ounces
20-25 g = 0.71-0.88 ounces
From Stat 0405 of the overall environmental impact of global agricultural production, this focuses on personal meat consumption, related by virtue of livestock production was counted in with agricultural production in Stat 0405.
This meat consumption statistic seem to go against Stat 0396 which stated the average global meat production was about 43 kg per person per year, provided by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Changing this statistic so it is on an annual scale (because it is easier), it shows meat consumption to be 36.5 kg per person per year. However, keep in mind that is meat production and not consumption. Putting the two together, you have a new statistic of average meat consumption being about 85% of average meat production. This is not generally recommended for different sources of statistics, of course, but with two reasonably reliable sources, it can be done to roughly identify the scope of a situation. To be safe, it is recommended one significant digit gets shaved off and the statistic worded carefully to have a bit more truth to it. Here, the scope is then at least 10% of meat produced is not consumed, instead of trying on the seemingly more accurate 15%. It’s a reasonable statistic, if you think about it. Some meat goes bad at the sale source or on its way there. Some goes bad at home. Some is just not eaten even when packed in a lunch, or served.
So the 10% statistic was a value added statistic from this blog which you can cite and repeat the math for your work, though not suggested for academia.
As for commentary on the minimum 10% value, or ever the 15% calculated out, pending who you are, you might think this reasonable, high or low. For those who might think it low, you are probably in the Western world where mass production allows for greater potential for waste. But then think about those who consume less meat per day because they don’t have as much. They probably waste very little, although their weight in the overall average is not possible to say here, but don’t forget they are the majority of the world population.
Why this story was not cited to its source in The Lancet is a complicated story but the short of it is that the Lancet’s site requirement for an account to access it would render the link useless to the common reader anyway. [Envirostats author]
- Anthony McMichael, Professor at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University, Canberra in The Lancet, via Agence France-Presse (AFP) hosted on Google, Sep 12 2007
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 at 5:53 am
[...] 11. There’s a discussion of global average figures here: http://envirostats.info/2007/09/18/0406/ [...]
Thursday, April 17, 2008 at 9:00 am
[...] figure of 1042g/person/week for 2006. #There’s a discussion of global average figures here. #See Food and Agriculture Organization, 2006. Livestock’s Long Shadow. Figure 1.4, p9. [...]