Countries that eat the most meat - ranking

Countries that eat the most meat - ranking

The countries that eat the most meat add significant damage to the planet. It is time to take responsibility and to change the habits of your life

There is hardly any need for discussion on the topic. Simply put, the world has to reduce the amount of meat it eats. In 2011, the world population reached seven billion and is now around 7.7 billion. Since the world population continues to skyrocket, the planet simply cannot maintain its current meat consumption.

Well, I'm neither a vegetarian nor vegan. However, it quickly became clear that - like the rest of the world's population - I have to change the lifestyle and overturn towards a more vegetable diet.

A current BBC analysis suggests that the use of land for the cultivation of food and forestry is about 25 % of all global greenhouse gas emissions. This is essentially as much as of electricity and heat and significantly more than from all trains, aircraft and cars on this planet.

If you take a closer look at the environmental effects of the food sector, you can see that meat and dairy products are the main factors. Headquarters worldwide are responsible for between 14.5 and 18 % of the greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans. When it comes to other warming gases, agriculture is one of the main causes of both methane and laughing gas emissions.

Matt McGrath, BBC environmental correspondent

Livestock breeding consumes 83 % of the arable land and causes 60 % of the greenhouse gas emissions of agriculture. Nevertheless, it delivers only 18 % of the food calories and 37 % of the protein that humans need.

The calculation is amazingly simple: eating meat makes little sense.

The arguments for reducing meat

In 2018, scientists announced behind the most comprehensive analysis of this kind that avoidance of meat and dairy products is the best way to reduce the effects on the environment on the planet.

In 2019, a group of 37 scientists developed the Planetary Health Diet, a “flexitarian” and healthy diet based on a sustainable nutritional system. It requires a massive departure of meat, especially red meat that needs to be halved.

Reducing meat in our diet would drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, help to prevent species death, to stop the expansion of arable land and save water. The change in diet would prevent the collapse of the natural world that depends on which all humanity depends.

Alt = "countries that eat most meat cattle deforestation"Cover page/ShutterstockDilated rainforest in the Brazilian Amazon is now used as a cattle pasture

In addition to the environmental argument, there is a debate about the ethical handling of animals. The pain and suffering that animals have to endure in livestock is well documented. The historian, philosopher and bestselling author Yuval Noah Harari claimed that industrial agriculture is one of the worst crimes in history.

In Great Britain alone, around 2.6 million cattle, 10 million pigs, 14.5 million sheep and lambs, 80 million fish and 950 million birds are slaughtered for human consumption every year. While the industry is progressing for artificial meat, the last argument for animal husbandry breaks down.

The suffering that is inherent in meat production can no longer be defended. Livestock breeding will almost certainly be one of the things that future generations look back on as terrible, primitive and shameful.

We have already written that the world is not necessarily better. Basic education, literacy, democracy and vaccinations may all improve for people, but for everything else - the millions of species that the earth also calls its home - the world is getting worse.

After all, there are health benefits if you turn to a flexitarian diet. The reduction of meat in our diet will also lead to a reduction in nutritional diseases such as heart attack, stroke and certain types of cancer. These are now the largest killers in the industrialized countries all over the world.

Who eats the most meat?

A report created by 107 scientists for the United Nations' World Climate Council (IPCC) states that the high consumption of meat and dairy products in the west drives global warming.

The report analyzed by the BBC states that the changeover to a more plant diet will contribute to combating climate change. It is also emphasized that more people could be fed with less land if the individual limits his meat consumption.

"We don't tell people to stop eating meat. In some places, people have no other choice. But it is obvious that we eat far too much in the West".

Prof. Pete Smith, University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom

The responsibility for global meat reduction is mainly on the shoulders of the richer countries in the world. If we compare consumption in different countries, the richer the country or territory usually applies, the more meat is consumed.

old = "countries that eat most of the meat card"Our world indatndat.orgThe 173 countries that eat the most meat in grams per person and day

It does not depend on the population of a country, but on how rich this population is. The more money we have, the more meat we eat. For people in countries with low incomes, meat is still a luxury.

The countries that eat the most meat do the greatest damage on the planet. It is time that those of us who live in these countries take responsibility and change our eating habits.

Countries with the lowest & highest meat consumption

The following table shows the countries with the highest average daily meat consumption and the lowest - or the most vegetarian countries in the world - measured in grams per person per day.

Countries with the lowest meat consumption

Most meat consuming countries

Countries that eat the most meat - ranking

The following data come from our World in Data and indicate the average daily meat consumption of 173 countries or territories, measured in grams per person. The data comes from 2013, the latest available.

old = ""

Mission statement: Yulia Grigoryeva/Shutterstock

.