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Posted on 05/04/2008 5:45:50 AM PDT by JACKRUSSELL
Even as the world spins into a global food crisis, a popular theory — voiced by the likes of US President George W Bush and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice — is that the Chinese and Indians are responsible. The 'logic': due to zooming incomes, they are eating more, causing worldwide shortages. But is that true?
Due to their huge populations, countries like India and China may appear to consume gigantic amounts of food. But the real elephant in the room that nobody is willing to talk about is how much each person gets to eat. And the answer will shock many.
Total foodgrain consumption — wheat, rice, and all coarse grains like rye, barley etc — by each person in the US is over five times that of an Indian, according to figures released by the US Department of Agriculture for 2007.
Each Indian gets to eat about 178 kg of grain in a year, while a US citizen consumes 1,046 kg.
In per capita terms, US grain consumption is twice that of the European Union and thrice that of China. Grain consumption includes flour and by conversion to alcohol.
In fact, per capita grain consumption has increased in the US — so actually the Americans are eating more. In 2003, US per capita grain consumption was 946 kg per year which increased to 1046 kg last year.
By way of comparison, India’s per capita grain consumption has remained static over the same period. It’s not just grains. Milk consumption, in fluid form, is 78 kg per year for each person in the US, compared to 36 kg in India and 11 kg in China.
Vegetable oils consumption per person is 41 kg per year in US, while Indians are making do with just 11 kg per year. These are figures for liquid milk, not for cheese, butter, yogurt and milk powders which are consumed in huge proportion in the more advanced countries.
A significant proportion of India’s population is vegetarian, and so, this is all the food that they get, apart from vegetables and pulses. But the source of carbohydrates and fats is mainly derived from food grains and oils.
As far as meat consumption is concerned, the US leads the world in per capita consumption by a wide margin. Beef consumption, for example, is 42.6 kg per person per year, compared to a mere 1.6 kg in India and 5.9 kg in China. In case you are thinking that perhaps Indians might be going in for chicken, think again. In the US, 45.4 kg poultry meat is consumed every year by each person, compared to just 1.9 kg in India.
Pork consumption is negligible in India, while it is a major item elsewhere. In the European Union, 42.6 kg pork is consumed per person every year, while in the US, 29.7 kgs are consumed. Pork is a staple for Chinese, and so over 35 kg are consumed per person per year. And, we are not talking about various other types of meat, like turkey.
All these comparisons are for powerful economies, whether of the west or the east.
But the story would not be complete without mentioning the plight of Africa, where foodgrain consumption in 2007 was a mere 162 kg per year for each person, or about 445 grams per day. Don’t forget they are not getting any meat or milk products out there.
Perhaps, it is time to include the lifestyle choices of the West in the whole feverish debate on how to tackle the global food crisis.
These figures are collated by the US Department of Agriculture. US per capita grain consumption rose from 946 kg in 2003 to 1046 kg last year. India’s per capita consumption remained static in this period.
“voiced by the likes of US President George W Bush and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice — is that the Chinese and Indians are responsible”
sounds like propaganda to me. did they really say this?
1,000 kg per year is about 6 pounds per person, per day. No one eats that much grain, my horse might comr close.
The math that is the foundation of this story is just plain wrong.
And the food donated to starving countries figures per capita of these countries is....?
Perhaps the author would care to support this statement with a quote.
But we export HUGE amounts of food. They want us to produce the stuff, and send it ALL to them rather than send them our excess...
But if you factor in the “undocumented” people in this country, that would lower the per capita consumption. Are the illegals here to eat the food that Americans don’t want to eat?
The U.S. also consumes 10X more soap, shampoo and personal hygiene products.
Oh, oh, I thought is was the ethanol. Having lived in the US all of my years, I rarely observed people here with more than an ounce of excess fat.
From the article:
Each Indian gets to eat about 178 kg of grain in a year, while a US citizen consumes 1,046 kg.
It would not suprise me if it was right. You have to consider waste, alcohol production, and animal feed. I'm sure they took the total US consumption and divided by the number of people.
I don’t know if they said it, but if someone wants to put blame on the increasing cost of food, they need to look no further than the welfare for farmers and agribusiness(ethanol subsidies) that W wholeheartedly supports.
Article is from "The Times of India." So, here comes the "evil fat lazy American" B.S. again. India has over a billion people. Perhaps, it is time to get their population under control instead of trying to breed their next door neighbor out of existence. Perhaps then they would have enough to eat. Perhaps if they then had enough to eat they could think straight and perhaps not write such pinheaded garbage as this article.
Bet we eat more beef too.
Now we can’t eat? We can’t drive? We can’t use electricity? Why don’t we go back to the dark ages so we can make everyone like us again.
I work for every bite that I eat, thank-you. I don’t feel one bit guilty and I won’t be apologizing to anyone for it, either.
where the hell have Bush or Condi ever blamed India for eating too much food? I’m thinking that the Times of India is just the Times of London trying to miseduacte the third world into hating America.
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