TS NEW MEAT F
or some, the idea that China could one day move away from the consumption of beef, pork, poultry and other animal meats may seem like a pipe dream. There’s good reason for this, according to statistics from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, China consumed nearly 50% of the world’s pork in 2019. In 2016, the average Chinese person ate 63 kilograms of meat per year. Despite lagging behind over 10 countries, including the United States, Israel and Argentina, in per capita meat consumption, China’s growing appetite for animal flesh has triggered alarm bells. A tacit acknowledgment of this trend came from the Central Government in Beijing in 2016, when a plan was outlined to cut citizens’ meat consumption by a whopping 50%. The positive ramifications of such a dietary shift would be massive, not just for the personal health of Chinese people, but also for the planet: If the target is met, China’s animal agriculture sector would see a 1-billion-metric-ton reduction of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by 2030. But how is such a feat accomplished in meatloving China? The answer, it turns out, may lay with plant-based ‘meats,’ and an industry is rising both domestically and abroad to help China achieve this goal.
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Image via Impossible Foods