Countries That Eat the Most Meat – Ranking

Countries That Eat the Most Meat – Ranking

The countries that eat the most meat are doing significant damage to the planet. It's time to take responsibility and change the habits of your life

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

Well, I am neither vegetarian nor vegan. However, it quickly became clear that I - like the rest of the world's population - needed to change lifestyle habits and switch to a more plant-based diet.

A recent BBC analysis suggests that the use of land for growing food and forestry accounts for around 25% of all global greenhouse gas emissions. That's essentially as much as electricity and heat and significantly more than all the trains, planes and cars on the planet.

If you take a closer look at the environmental impact of the food sector, you will see that meat and dairy are the main factors. Globally, livestock is responsible for between 14.5 and 18% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. When it comes to other warming gases, agriculture is a major contributor to both methane and nitrous oxide emissions.

Matt McGrath, BBC Environment Correspondent

Livestock uses 83% of arable land and produces 60% of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. Yet it only provides 18% of the dietary calories and 37% of the protein that humans need.

The calculation is surprisingly simple: eating meat makes little economic sense.

The arguments for reducing meat

In 2018, scientists behind the most comprehensive analysis of its kind announced that avoiding meat and dairy products is the best way to reduce the environmental impact on the planet.

In 2019, a group of 37 scientists developed the Planetary Health Diet, a “flexitarian” and healthy diet based on a sustainable food system. It requires a massive move away from meat, especially red meat, which needs to be cut in half.

Reducing meat in our diet would dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, help prevent species extinction, stop the expansion of farmland, and conserve water. Changing diets would prevent the collapse of the natural world on which all of humanity depends.

alt=“Countries That Eat the Most Meat Cattle Deforestation”>Front Page/ShutterstockLogged rainforest in the Brazilian Amazon is now used for livestock grazing

In addition to the environmental argument, there is a debate about the ethical treatment of animals. The pain and suffering endured by animals in the livestock industry is well documented. Historian, philosopher and best-selling author Yuval Noah Harari has claimed that industrial agriculture is one of the worst crimes in history.

In the UK 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. As the artificial meat industry advances, the ultimate argument for animal agriculture is collapsing.

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

We have already written about how the world is not necessarily getting better. Basic education, literacy, democracy and vaccinations may all be improving for people, but for everything else – the millions of species that also call Earth home – the world is getting worse.

Finally, there are health benefits to adopting a flexitarian diet. Reducing meat in our diet will also lead to a reduction in diet-related diseases such as heart attack, stroke and certain cancers. These are now the biggest killers in developed countries around the world.

Who eats the most meat?

A report prepared by 107 scientists for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says high consumption of meat and dairy products in the West is driving global warming.

The report, analyzed by the BBC, says switching to a more plant-based diet will help combat climate change. It also emphasizes that more people could be fed with less land if individuals limited their meat consumption.

"We're not telling people to stop eating meat. In some places people have no choice. But it's obvious that in the West we eat far too much."

Prof. Pete Smith, University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom

The responsibility for global meat reduction falls largely on the shoulders of the world's richer countries. If we compare consumption in different countries, as a rule, the richer the country or territory, the more meat is consumed.

alt=“Countries that eat the most meat menu”>OurWorldinData.orgThe 173 countries that eat the most meat in grams per person per day

What matters is not the population of a country, but how rich that population is. The more money we have, the more meat we eat. For people in low-income countries, meat is still a luxury.

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

Countries with the lowest & highest meat consumption

The table below 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 comes from Our World in Data and reports the average daily meat consumption of 173 countries or territories, measured in grams per person per day. The data is from 2013, the most recent available.

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Lead image: Yulia Grigoryeva/Shutterstock

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