Opinion: Chinese Farms A Growing Challenge
This report describes the trend of increasing per capita meat consumption in China and its environmental impacts. The authors suggest undertaking a critical examination of industrial animal agriculture to help prevent large-scale environmental issues. The report includes statistics describing China’s factory farming industry.
During the past decade, Chinese consumption of pork (the country’s most popular type of meat) has doubled. China is currently the world’s largest producer and consumer of meat, processing 700 million pigs per year. Western-style meat consumption is becoming more mainstream and could have significant global environmental impact.
China is home to roughly one-fifth of the world’s population, so even small increases in individual meat and dairy consumption have broad environmental, climate, health, and food security impacts. China has an estimated 64,000 factory farms, compared with the U.S. number of about 18,800.
Related Statistics:
- Chinese farmed animals produce 2.7 billion tons of manure/year.
- Only 3% of China’s large- and medium-sized farmed animal operations have facilities to treat animal waste.
- In the 1930s, 97% of the calories of the average Chinese diet came from grains and vegetables. This percentage decreased to 63% in 2002.
- Nearly one in four Chinese adults is overweight.
- First line antibiotics such as penicillin are no longer effective against more than 90% of certain bacteria in Asia due to overuse in farmed animals.