What we’re putting into our bodies can either nourish us, or make us ill. With that in mind, I wrote recently about the role of food consumption in terms of the risk of colon cancer. But what about food production?
Across the world, we are seeing the rise of cheap meat: largely driven by demand from a rising middle class who finally can afford beef, pork and chicken, which used to be out of reach, given their cost. Approximately 45% of global consumption growth is occurring in upper-middle-income countries including China, India, Brazil, Indonesia and the Philippines. Poultry is set to take an increasingly large share of that growth (projected to grow by 21% by 2034), because it is relatively cheap, widely acceptable and requires fewer resources per kilogram compared with beef or pork. By 2034, it is estimated that poultry will provide 45% of the protein consumed from all meat sources.
