THE FAT OF THE LAND - MEAT: A Benign Extravagance - page 67

development disaster, and groundnut oil production has never quite vindicated itself since. 4
The incursions of palm oil plantations into tropical forests are currently giving cause for
concern. Corn oil represents a small byproduct of a massive industry whose baleful influ-
ence upon global fast food consumption is eloquently spelt out in Michael Pollan's The
Omnivore's Dilemma . Rape production in the UK is buoyant but unpopular, especially with
beekeepers. Some varieties of vegetable oil, for example grape pip and sunflower, appar-
ently perform quite well.
However, the crop which produces by far the largest amount of vegetable oil is soya.
Grown primarily in the USA and Brazil, it is said to represent 70 percent of the world's sup-
ply and its influence upon global food and commodities markets is second only to wheat. 5
As such it has attracted considerable attention from food analysts, not least in the Nether-
lands where soya represents around three quarters of all the oil consumed.
In 2005, two Dutch food analysts, Winnie Gerbens-Leenes and Sanderine Nonhebel,
published an analysis of the land-take of the typical Dutch diet, based on a methodology
developed by them in an earlier paper. 6 The resulting figures, reproduced in Table 2, are
useful for anyone wishing to assess their personal food print. However, it should be borne
in mind (a) that they refer to intensive chemical agriculture, using inputs entirely from ar-
able production, and (b) the figures for meat and dairy are in real life highly variable, be-
cause animals can be fed on permanent grass (which is often less valuable than arable land)
or on crop residues and waste, and this muddies the picture considerably.
The relatively low amount of land required for cereal and vegetable production and the
high amount for meat, especially beef, are no great surprise. The land required for eight
kilos of coffee, representing about two cups of coffee a day, is more significant than one
might expect.
But the most surprising element in this analysis is the fat element. First, the quantity con-
sumed is impressive - 29 kilos a year of butter, margarine and vegetable oil, over half a kilo
per week. On top of that the Dutch could be ingesting another 15 kilos or so in the form of
animal fat (on the assumption that the pork consumed is 15 per cent fat, the milk four per
cent fat and the cheese 20 per cent fat). That's 44 kilos a year, the equivalent of a pack of
butter every two days. (The average Briton consumes 33 kilos of butter, marge and veg oil,
but less pork and cheese than the Dutch.)
Is this excessive? Gerbens-Leenes and Nonhebel provide figures for Dutch consumption
from 1950 through to 1990. In 1950, right after World War II, when the Dutch ate less than
half the amount of meat they eat now, their consumption of marge, veg oil and butter was
25 kilos. It went up to 30 kilos in 1960 and has stayed around there ever since. The estim-
ated total consumption of fat went up from 40 kilos in 1950 to 44 kilos in 1990. Most of the
animal fat consumption in the 1950s came from drinking large quantities of whole milk.