Source record
National food supply research index (legacy)
FAO Food Balance Sheets, UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey, USDA Economic Research Service, Others (2024). Compiled by The Balance of Health.
Key findings
- FAOSTAT 2023 meat supply is about 8 kg/person in India, 122 in the United States and 117 in Australia; supply is not intake.
- Global meat consumption per person has roughly doubled since 1961 and continues to rise, driven by poultry.
Record
- Source type
- Government Statistics
- Study type
- Cross Sectional
- Topics
- Climate & emissions, Scale
- Geography
- Global, by country
- Funding & conflicts
- Not recorded.
- Source quality
- Moderate evidenceOfficial statistics with known biases; adequate for typical-intake defaults, not for individual diets.
Limitations
- Food balance sheets measure supply, not intake, and overstate what is eaten by the amount wasted.
- Dietary surveys under-report intake, especially of meat and fat.
Claims this source supports
EnvironmentStrong evidence
Reducing meat and dairy consumption, especially beef and lamb, is one of the largest ways an individual's diet can reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Yes. Animal foods produce most of food's emissions, and beef and lamb produce the most per gram of protein. Eating less of them lowers a diet's footprint substantially.