Animal Welfare and the Meat Market

This chapter covers five topics. It looks at:

● the contribution that each livestock species makes to overall world meat production

● views about livestockfarming and the meat industry in today’s society

● the aims and some of the problems in keeping livestock in developing countries

● environmental hazards in intensive livestock farming

● distinguishing between acceptable and unacceptable farming standards

These topics are discussed in different sections in this book, and the aim here is to introduce them and bring together some general points.  

World Livestock and Meat Production

The meat and livestock industry has an important role in feeding the world’s population. It is a major source of dietary protein, and on average it provides about 8% of our energy intake. However, there are immense differences between nations in the importance that meat has in the diet. For example, in Bangladesh, meat and offal contribute as little as 0.7% of dietary energy whereas in Mongolia they make up 27%. The countries that have a large per capita meat consumption (about 100 kg/capita/year) are Australia, Austria, the Bahamas, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, Mongolia, Spain and the USA, while the nations that consume the least meat that is produced on farms (about 5 kg/capita/ year) include Bangladesh, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Gambia, Guinea, India, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda and Sri Lanka.

There are three countries that make a very large contribution to overall meat production. They are China, the USA and Brazil. These countries produce about 40% of the world’s farm animals used for meat consumption and over half the world’s meat. They also account for 49% of the world’s meat consumption. The three countries with the highest levels of meat export per capita of population are Denmark, Ireland and New Zealand.

Census figures for farmed animals in the world during 2003 are given in Table 1.1. This shows the importance of each species in terms of the number of animals it contributes to meat consumption. It is only a rough guide, as it does not allow for offtake rate or slaughter interval. Offtake rate is the proportion of animals that are sold or used for meat consumption every year. Slaughter interval is the time between birth (or hatching) and slaughter, in animals not used for breeding. The table underestimates the role of poultry because they have a short slaughter interval and poultry farms produce more than one crop a year. It overestimates the role of cattle, which have a slaughter interval that is usually more than 1 year as well as a low offtake rate.

The offtake (cropping) of cattle is quite complex, as can be seen from Table 1.2. Countries such as the Confederation of Independent States (CIS), the USA and China have high offtake rates. Over 35% of cattle in each of these countries are slaughtered every year. On the other hand, in India, which has the largest cattle population, fewer than 7% of the cattle are slaughtered each year. The slaughter of female cattle for meat consumption is not widely practised in India for religious reasons. In Sudan and Ethiopia, the offtake rate for cattle is also about 7% because they are valued for monetary and security reasons, as explained later in this chapter. None of the European countries feature as big cattle producers, but the European Union (EU) as a whole is the third largest beef-exporting collective. The EU country with the largest number of cattle is France (about 20 million head) and its offtake rate is about 30%, some of the cattle being slaughtered as veal.

The figures given in Table 1.1 do not include farmed fish and hunted animals. Aquaculture is now a substantial contributor to world meat supply. Between 1996 and 2003, production of farmed fish rose from 27 to 42 million tonnes, and it now accounts for 32% of total fish meat production. About 84% of aquaculture production is in seven Asian countries, with China and India making the biggest contributions. Not all fish are destined for human consumption. About 21% of fisheries plus aquaculture production goes to other outlets.

Table 1.1. Approximate number of farmed animals in the world (from FAO Yearbook 2004, No. 177

Table 1.2. Cattle numbers in those countries with the largest cattle populations. (from FAO Yearbook 2004, No. 177)