Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 1.1.
Intake of milk, meat and eggs as well as protein of animal origin per inhabitant per year and
portion (%) of total protein intake (minimum and maximum values, global averages and German values
for comparison; kg per inhabitant per year; data from 2005). (From FAO, 2009a.)
Food
Minimum
Average
Maximum
Germany
Milk
1.3
(DR Congo)
82.1
367.7
(Sweden)
248.7
Meat
a
3.1
(Bangladesh)
41.2
142.5
(Luxembourg)
83.3
Eggs
0.1
(DR Congo)
9.0
20.2
(PR China)
11.8
Edible protein of animal origin
(g per human per day)
1.7
(Burundi)
23.9
69.0
(USA)
52.8
Portion of animal protein in per
cent of total protein intake
per person
4.0
(Burundi)
27.9
59.5
(USA)
53.7
Note:
a
Probably empty body weight (meat plus bones; see Flachowsky and Kamphues, 2012).
food.
Food security
was much more important
than
food safety
or aspects of food processing
or animal health and welfare. h is situation
has changed during the past years and food
safety is paramount in Western countries
today. But nevertheless, the question, 'I am
hungry, is there anything to eat?' (see Table
1.1 and Fig. 1.1), is still relevant to many
people (about 1 billion; WHO, 2007) and
many countries. h is is one of the reasons
for producing more and better foods of plant
and animal origin all over the world. In his
Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Norman
Borlaug summarized his philosophy in the
following statement: 'If you desire peace,
cultivate justice, but at the same time
cultivate the i elds to produce more bread;
otherwise there will be no peace' (Borlaug,
1970). Recently, Aerts (2012) formulated
the challenge for the future of agriculture as
'more (food) for more (people), with less
(inputs and emissions)'.
h ere is, however, a high variation in the
availability and consumption of food of
animal origin between persons and countries
(between 1.7 and about 70 g of protein of
animal origin per person per day; see Table
1.1). If people in the 'developed' countries
continue their high consumption and
people's intake in the developing countries is
to increase, a dramatic rise in the production
of food of animal origin on a global scale is
necessary. Other reasons for people's
consumption of foods of animal origin are
the high bioavailability of various nutrients
and their considerable enjoyment value of
the products. Such food is also considered as
an indicator of the standard of living in many
regions of the world. Further reasons for the
higher demand for food of animal origin in
some countries are the increased income of
the population (Keyzer
et al
., 2005) and the
imitation of the so-called 'Western lifestyle'
(of nutrition). In the next 20 years, up to
3 billion more 'middle-class consumers'
('middle class' is dei ned as having daily per
capita spending of US$10-100 in purchasing
parity terms; Kharas, 2012) are expected to
have purchasing power (presently about 1.8
billion). In anticipation of these changes,
sui cient animal feed should be considered
as the starting point for food of animal origin
(Zoiopoulos and Drosinos, 2010; Flachowsky
et al
., 2013). Higher amounts of food of
animal origin require higher plant yields
and/or a larger area for feed production and
more animals and/or higher animal yields, as
well as a more ei cient conversion of feed
into food of animal origin (Powell
et al
.,
2013; Windisch
et al
., 2013) for various levels
of yields or performance, as demonstrated in
Table 1.2.
In addition feed/food production causes
emissions with a certain greenhouse gas
potential, such as carbon dioxide (CO
2
)
from fossil fuel, methane (CH
4
; greenhouse
