2023-06-01 19:02:03
While food accounts for about a third of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, meat consumption is one of the main contributors, due in particular to methane emissions from ruminants, but also deforested land for livestock and livestock feed. Although meat represents only 18% of the calories consumed in the world, its production is thus responsible for 56% to 58% of greenhouse gas emissions of agricultural origin.
At the global level, the French are among the populations called upon to make greater efforts to reduce their consumption. With 84.9 kilograms of carcass equivalent consumed per capita in 2022, a French person eats twice as much meat as the world average. French consumption is within the European average per capita, the biggest consumers of meat products being the Spaniards, followed by the Portuguese.
Globally, consumption has doubled in twenty years. Chicken and pork, inexpensive meats, are booming, even if the latter is accompanied by religious prohibitions for part of the population. In the United States, individual consumption of beef has thus fallen by a third in thirty years, while that of chicken has more than doubled.
China is the largest meat market by volume, accounting for a third of global consumption. But, on an individual scale, the average consumption of the Chinese is only half that of North Americans (more than 100 kg of meat per person per year).
Major challenge
Conversely, on the African continent, consumption is only 17 kg per person per year. But the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations foresees a 200% jump in beef and pork consumption in Africa by 2050, and 211% for poultry.
This global restructuring of meat demand is a major challenge for the planet, both in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and the impact on biodiversity, land availability and the destabilization of traditional pastoral economies. The intensification of livestock farming threatens peasant farming models, which constitute the economic base of many developing countries.
Several scientific groups are therefore reflecting on the composition of a healthy diet for the planet. Among the most advanced research works are those of the commission formed by the medical journal The Lancet and the EAT Foundation : this recommends reducing the consumption of red meat by 50% worldwide (by 84% for North Americans and 77% for Europeans) and doubling that of fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes. On the other hand, for Southeast Asia, where populations are experiencing micronutrient deficiencies, the EAT-Lancet commission recommends doubling the ration of red meat.
“Le Monde” participates in the debates of We Love Green
The world will take part in the debates organized as part of the We Love Green 2023 festival at the Bois de Vincennes, in Paris: find us Saturday, June 3 at 2:15 p.m. for the round table “Greening our plates to save the planet”, with Romain Meder, head of the Domaine du Primard (Eure-et-Loire), Gilles Fumey, professor of cultural geography, CNRS-Sorbonne researcher and food specialist, and Elyne Etienne, agriculture and food manager at the Foundation for Nature and Man. Appointment Sunday, June 4 at 2:15 p.m. for a live recording of the podcast Chaleur Humaine “Climate: how to change our imaginations? » around screenwriter Olivier Szulzynger and Amélie Mougey, editor-in-chief of The comic magazine. 15 hoursplace for debate “For a better sharing of water”, with Benoît Jaunet, farmer and spokesperson for the Confédération paysanne des Deux-Sèvres, Agathe Euzen, anthropologist and deputy director of the CNRS Ecology and Environment Institute, and Dan Lert, president of Eau de Paris and deputy mayor of Paris in charge of ecological transition. These three meetings are led by journalists from the editorial staff of the Monde in partnership with We Love Green.
Find the complete program of the think tank on the site of We Love Green.
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