Global meat production increased over the past decade by 20 percent

Jan 20, 2011
by Rich Heffern

According to a Worldwatch Institute report featured on Vital Signs, a page on their Web site, global meat production increased by only 0.8 percent in 2009 to 281.5 million tons, a slowdown from the 2.4 percent growth rate of 2008. But the increase continued the steady growth of the past decade. Since 2000, global meat production has risen by 20 percent.

The production of beef increased by less than a tenth of 1 percent in 2009, reaching 65.1 million tons.3 The United States remains the largest beef producer, but output there is expected to fall by 1 percent in 2010, below 12 million tons, due to rising feed costs.


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