Eats shoots and leaves: How green is our diet really?

People are cutting back on eating meat, or giving it up entirely. So is vegetarianism winning? The numbers vary, and our diets are not as green as you’d expect.

Wave the green flag, by all means. India certainly bucks the global trend when it comes to eating meat.

(Pixabay)

The world now slaughters 80 billion animals a year to produce 350 million tonnes of meat for food. “Over the past 50 years, meat production globally has more than quadrupled,” says Diana Bogueva, a researcher at Australia’s Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute. Her 2021 study analysed meat consumption in 35 countries between 2000 and 2019, and its relationship to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). “Developing nations are demanding more animal protein too,” Bogueva says. China, for instance, consumes 15 times more meat than in 1961, with per capita consumption now at 63 kg.

India’s tastes don’t seem to have changed much, despite decades of population growth and economic progress. Around the world, at 40 kg annually, the average human eats 20 kg more meat per year than in 1961. “India’s per capita meat consumption is almost exactly the same as it was in 1961, at less than 4 kilogrammes per person,” says Bogueva. Even when we do go meatless, Indians are hardly eating vegetables; what’s on the plate is largely grain, pulses and dairy.

But hold the cheers. In towns and cities, meat-eating is conspicuously, indulgently, on the rise. The results of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) conducted in 2019-21 shows that, on average, two of every three Indians eat meat. It showed that preferences for meat vary widely between regions and between men and women.

“India is projected to be one of the largest growth areas for consumption in chicken, beef and mutton,” Bogueva says. “I know that the country is increasing its meat consumption and I suspect the unchanged figures could reflect a lack of up-to-date data.”

Bogueva’s research shows that wealthier nations still eat the most meat. Interestingly, this is also where more diners are now cutting back, driven by concerns over the environmental cost of rearing animals for food on an industrial scale, and the cruelty involved. The 2021 study measured a new metric: peak meat – the point at which improvements in GDP no longer correlate with greater meat consumption.

Bogueva’s team identified that, after nations hit a GDP of $40,000 (about ₹33 lakh) per capita, meat intake plateaus out. Thus far, this has happened in only three of the 35 countries they studied: New Zealand, Canada and Switzerland.

Meanwhile, around the world, chicken has clucked its way to the top. Cultures that traditionally preferred beef are switching because poultry has a lower carbon footprint and lower fat content. (Many consumers remain ignorant of the dangers from hormones and antibiotics used in industrialised poultry farming). Chicken is also cheaper than red meat, which is driving demand up faster in poorer countries. “An estimated 50 billion chickens are slaughtered for food every year,” Bogueva says.

A new crop

Wherever you are in the world, what you eat is determined by what’s available and what you can afford. Yet, 75% of the world’s food supply comes from just 12 plant and five animal species. This leaves the field wide open for food technologists to experiment with plant-based meats — protein-packed items derived from beans, legumes and fungi, that mimic the experience of cooking and eating meat and fish.

Across wealthy countries, these mock meats have been showing up on restaurant menus, in burger-chain offerings and in supermarket freezers. Indian food company ITC launched plant-based patties and nuggets this year. Smaller start-ups have pushed for consumer awareness and acceptance too. The global market was valued at $5.06 billion in 2021, according to a 2022 report by Research Dive. It is expected to grow by about 19.4% annually until 2027.

Taste tests around the world, however, throw up the same challenges. Vegetarians find the textures unfamiliar; meat-eaters find them not familiar enough. Mock meat is often more expensive too, and it’s rarely healthier.

Overall, despite all the chatter about going green, meat consumption is clearly winning. “The truth is that the love for meat is profoundly embedded in the human diet,” says Bogueva. “Meat has important social, cultural and nutritional functions across cultures.”

Even as Bogueva monitors meat-eating nations such as Germany for changes in the coming decade, more alternatives are emerging. Lab-grown meat received approval by the US Food and Drug Administration for the first time this year. A company called Upside Foods will soon be able to sell chicken made from real animal cells grown in bioreactors. Customers are already lining up: Michelin-starred chef Dominique Crenn plans to serve it at her San Francisco restaurant, Atelier Crenn. Upside hopes to eventually sell cultivated chicken alongside industrialised poultry at supermarkets. It will be more expensive than actual chicken. But for now, it’s a new green flag to wave.