Data shows average Chinese citizen now eats more protein than American, UN food agency says – YP

Covering 187 countries from 2010 to 2021, FAO’s food balance sheets measure national supply based on the amount produced plus the amount imported, providing a snapshot of what is potentially available for consumption.

India, which has a population close to that of China, had only 70.52 grams (2.48 oz) of daily protein intake per capita in 2021, according to FAO’s food balance sheets.

Among the five other most populous developing countries, Indonesia reached 79.75 grams (2.81 oz), followed by Pakistan with 70.77 grams (2.49 oz) and Nigeria with 59.08 grams (2.08 oz).

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While China has already surpassed the United States in a number of measures of living standards – including life expectancy, health insurance coverage, high-speed rail and 5G – the challenge of overtaking American agriculture is much more difficult.

With a population of 1.4 billion, more than four times that of the United States, China’s attainment of Western levels of food security was considered by some to be impossible without condemning the Earth to an unsustainable future.

American environmental analyst Lester Brown predicted in his 1995 book WHow will China be fed? that the Asian giant would eventually have to import so much grain to feed its population that it could precipitate an unprecedented rise in global food prices.

The theory has gained popularity among some politicians, with former US President Barack Obama using it to justify his China policy in an Australian television interview in April 2010.

“If over a billion Chinese citizens are currently living the same lifestyle as Australians and Americans, then we are all going to have a very miserable time, the planet just can’t handle it,” Obama told ABC’s 7.30 Report.

While Obama may have intended to boost Beijing’s climate change efforts, his comments sparked strong discontent in China, where they were widely seen as justification for containing Chinese growth and development.

Instead, China has built up its protein supply not only through imports but also through intensive livestock farming and agricultural and aquaculture developments that have made some of its food products among the best in the world.

Although the Chinese diet is relatively healthy and emphasizes plant-based proteins, meat consumption has increased rapidly in recent years. Photo: Getty Images

China is now the world’s leading aquaculture nation and is increasingly turning to agricultural technologies and new scientific breeding methods to ensure higher and more stable production of crops that can be used for animal meat production.

But the Chinese are also showing that it is possible to increase protein intake without eating as much meat as Americans, which also benefits the planet.

In addition to their recognized health benefits, plant-based proteins also have an environmental advantage. Each kilo of soy produced provides 56% more protein – and 48 times fewer carbon emissions – than its beef equivalent, for example.

According to FAO’s Food Balance Sheets, animal products such as meat, fish, eggs and dairy dominated the United States’ protein supply in 2021, accounting for 69%. In contrast, China’s animal protein supply was about half that of the United States.

China’s protein supply includes more plant sources: vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, seeds, wheat, oats, rice, barley, corn and their products account for 60.5%.

FAO data show that daily per capita protein intake in China increased by 15.81 grams (0.55 ounces) between 2010 and 2021, with about two-thirds coming from plant products. Almost all of the 5.31-gram (0.18 ounce) increase in the United States is attributed to animal products.

While China’s per capita meat consumption is significantly lower than that of the United States, China is the world’s largest consumer of animal products, accounting for 27% of the global total in 2021, due to its population size, according to a report by McKinsey & Company.

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In 1944, the journal Science published an estimate that attributed only 5% of China’s protein intake to animal protein, a figure that had risen to about 26.96% by 1990.

In 2019, animal protein accounted for 49.2% of protein intake in China, according to a Chinese study published last year in the peer-reviewed journal Environment, Development and Sustainability.

Hon Ming Lam, a professor of life sciences at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said consumption of animal products began to increase in China around 2000.

“In the past, the Chinese diet was less focused on animal meat. Eating animal meat is a symbol of wealth. Along with the growth of China’s economy, more and more people have been able to afford to eat meat,” he said.

But growing feed crops has led to increased land and resource use, as well as greenhouse gas emissions, creating a sustainability problem, he said.

“China imports a huge amount of soybeans every year, mainly for oil production and animal feed,” Lam said. “Plant-based protein, without complicated processing, will be the best for large populations,” he added.

Lam worked with researchers in China, Vietnam, England and Canada to examine how willing people would be to change their diets to help mitigate climate change, with their findings published in the peer-reviewed journal Cell Reports Sustainability in February.

Lam and his fellow study authors surveyed people in China, Japan and Vietnam and found that “many Asian consumers still prefer traditional diets based on rice and pork over alternative food baskets.”

According to UN projections, if current trends continue, meat consumption in China could increase by 21% from 2010 levels by the end of the decade.

“Although consumption of animal protein has increased in Asia, beef consumption has not reached the levels seen in Western markets,” meaning policy measures could help reduce this trend.

The Chinese diet has become increasingly focused on animal protein as the Chinese economy has grown, a researcher has said. Photo: EPA

The Chinese government is encouraging people to reduce their consumption of animal products and eat more plant-based proteins.

Other recommendations include vegetables at every meal, daily servings of soy products and grains, more fish and less highly processed meats, according to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Plant proteins have always played a role in Chinese cuisine, particularly in soy-based foods like tofu, which has been eaten in China for more than 2,000 years.

According to FAO’s Food Balance Sheets, China’s top ten protein suppliers were wheat, rice and their products, followed by vegetables, pork, poultry, eggs, freshwater fish, soybeans, peanuts and milk, excluding butter.

Iceland is the country that provides the most protein, with 145.62 grams (5.13 oz), while the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the country that provides the least, with 28.59 grams (1 oz), a decrease of almost 3 grams (0.105822 oz) since 2010, FAO found.