The line graph illustrates what amount of meat is consumed in four countries – the USA, the UK, Brazil, and India between 1985 and 2019. The meat consumption is represented as per capita.
Overall, there has been a general increase in the consumption of meat across all countries, albeit at different rates. The USA predominantly led the charts, whereas India maintained the lowest consumption. However, Brazil experienced the greatest increase in the meat preference.
Meat preference is mostly demonstrated by two countries, with nearly 90 per capita in the USA and just under 80 per capita in the UK. These figures followed a rising trend as the USA’ s figure surge and peaked at 140 per capita (the highest amount recorded) between 2009 and 2014, before tapering to almost 130 per capita. Similar to the USA, the UK’s consumption followed closely until 2000, when the figures stabilised briefly at 100 per capita. Beyond this stable period, the figures for meat consumption grew minimally, rising only by almost 10 per capita in the subsequent ninetine years.
Looking at the trend in the country that observed the greatest change. Brazil’s meat preference rose gradually for the first half, climbing steadily from 60 to just over 80 per capita in 2000. Over the second half of the period, the meat consumption rose rapidly, mirroring the figures of the UK in 2005, to almost 130 per capita in 2019, sharing the USA’s dominance that year.
In stark contrast, the country that consumed far the least amount of meat throughout the period was India. Despite doubling in its consumption (from below 20 to 40 per capita), this improvement lagged way behind all others.