Vegetarianism counts

As income rises, food consumption habits shift dramatically towards meat eating. In India, for the last 10 years consumption of meat, egg and milk are rising fast. In case of poultry meat in particular, there has been a sustained growth of 15% pa or more. What does it do to agriculture and agriculture commodities? The demand for commodities rises even faster. This is because meat eating is inherently more inefficient. We are no longer in the era of poaching meat from nature. The animals we eat have to be fed and for that we need to dedicate farmland to it.

Poultry meat for example is essentially processed soy and corn. The chick is fed on a diet consisting mainly of the above two ingredients. The feed pays for the growth and metabolism of the animal, and for the feathers and bones, which you cannot eat. You do not add any new protein or carbohydrates, whatever you get out of the animal is basically from the corn and soy that is fed to them.

Lets look at conversion factors:

• About 8 kg of grain gets you 1 kg of beef
• About 6 kg of grain gets you 1 kg of lamb meat
• About 2 kg of grain gets you 1 kg of poultry meat

The above comparisons are on live weight basis. In case of chicken for example 25% will be lost to feathers and another 25% to bones. Additionally the final meat product will have at least 30% moisture (the initial grain will also have about 15% moisture). So, on a dry basis, you end up with a conversion rate of 1:5 for chicken, ie., you pay 5 times more (in terms of feed) to get a certain amount of nutrition. You can arrive at this figure intuitively by simply comparing the market prices of meat products and the basic commodity (adjusted for nutritional value). The conversion rate is more adverse for red meat products.

What happens when large populations of China and India start consuming more and more meat. China for example was a producer of about 6 million tons of soybean about 20 years ago and it was exporting some. Today, it grows 16 million tons and imports another 16-17 million tons. Vast lands in Brazil grow soy to feed China, some of which are former forests.

Fortunately, the large proportion of vegetarians in India has tempered the growth in consumption of meat somewhat. However, the trend for the next 15-20 years is quite clear. Pressure of this magnitude on farmlands on a global scale will ultimately lead to rising prices of most agricultural commodities.

At a micro level, vegetarianism makes sound economic sense. But then we are slaves to the cravings of the taste buds.