On my Rural Route Radio program, we recently launched into a discussion on food consumption by world consumers. Ironically, I found a bit of data that suggested that the most consumed foods, on a per capita basis, were milk products to the tune of 78 kilograms per person.
That was followed by rice at 68 kg per person, wheat, potatoes and, finally, pork makes the top five. Honestly, it took some of the toughest research I have done to really zero in on these numbers because many sources want to hide the fact that two animal-derived products are actually in the top five. Because pork is so high, I thought it was worth a deeper dig into some consumption facts.
You can see in this excerpt, available at bit.ly/41Bw9Sl, one author who ignores the fact that milk should be considered a staple:
“Rice is by far the most consumed staple food in the world. It is a staple for more than 3 billion people, or almost half of the world’s population. Rice provides more than 20% of daily caloric intake for 48 countries, especially in South and East Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Central America. It is also a major component or condiment in many other countries.”
While I don’t dispute rice’s serious contribution to global nutritional needs, I want it to be put into context. We also have an interesting scenario that shows where the calories are disappearing by country. From 1961 to 2020, caloric disappearance in the United States has increased from 2,850 to 3,850 kilocalories daily and I say disappearance because the data does not account for food waste. Interesting to note that during the same timeframe the world average moves from 2,181 to 2,933 kcal daily. Possibly the biggest shocker I noticed in all of this is that Europe held a flat line in disappearance data from 3,048 to 3,443 kcal per day.
That leads me to the real issue of the day, which is the most consumed meat in the world. It is not goat, which you may have heard rumors of, but indeed it is pork. While most people understand that China is the monster pork consumer, as they do eat over half of the pork consumed in the entire world, it is not because of their per capita consumption. In fact, Chinese pork consumption is comparable to the United States on a per capita basis. We consume about 37 kg of beef and 30 kg of pork, annually. China’s per capita consumption of pork is 35 kg, but the kicker is that China has 1.4 billion people doing that.
The most interesting part of this story, to me, is that the biggest consumers of pork in the world are all European Union countries. Poland leads at 55 kg per person, followed by all those Eastern Bloc countries. Argentina tops the list with per capita beef and veal consumption while Israel leads the charge in chicken intake. Kazakhstan is the winner in per capita lamb consumption at 8.5 kg per person.
If you look at global meat trends, protein consumption continues in an upward direction. People who want to take your freedom understand that liberty and meat consumption, in my opinion, are tied together. Their push to persuade the global consumer to move away from animal products simply is not working.
With that said, it truly falls upon us to explain the vital importance of animals to both planet and human health. The true basis for what animals provide is to take plants that would not produce a human consumable food item and upcycle it into the most protein rich, nutrient dense foods a human can eat. This must be explained to every consumer. If we do a better job educating consumers about how animals are important to planet health, they will be the ambassadors for keeping animal proteins in the center of the plate. Do not take this for granted—start squealing like a stuck hog.
Editor’s note: The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not represent the views of High Plains Journal. Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.LoosTales.com, or email Trent at [email protected].
