Dear MEL Topic Readers,
Cattle to feed: Why a global meat crisis is looming
Recently, cattle herds of the world’s top three beef-producing countries,
Brazil, China, and the US, have been shrinking, and the price of beef is
soaring. Raising cattle to beaf takes time, water, grass and/or feed, and thus money.
Producing one kilogram of edible beef requires 25 kg of dry-matter feed, and it
takes nearly a year for a cow to produce a calf and over a year to raise cattle
for beef. What about chicken, whose demand is increasing as an alternative to
more expensive beef or pork? Producing poultry meat takes much less time and
money, but when the cost of key feed, soya meal, rises, rearers are discouraged
from raising chickens. All in all, meat prices are rising around the world due
to increasing demand, rising costs, climate change, and trade barriers.
Read the article and learn about the demand and supply of the global
meat market.
