{"id":580183,"date":"2026-07-11T09:53:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T09:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/580183\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T09:53:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T09:53:39","slug":"people-eat-six-times-more-chicken-than-in-1961-according-to-the-un","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/580183\/","title":{"rendered":"People Eat Six Times More Chicken Than In 1961, According To The UN"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The average person eats six times more chicken than they did in 1961, according to a new UN report.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The report also found that people eat roughly twice as much pork as their grandparents\u2019 generation did.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Read more: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/plantbasednews.org\/news\/alternative-protein\/plant-based-biorefineries-protein-two-years\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Plant-Based Biorefineries Could Supply The World\u2019s Protein In Less Than Two Years<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) published <a href=\"https:\/\/openknowledge.fao.org\/server\/api\/core\/bitstreams\/4a768b0d-cecf-441c-b75e-533387d0a1df\/content\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">the report<\/a>, \u201cDrivers of supply and demand of terrestrial animal source food,\u201d earlier this year. According to the FAO, the average global meat supply has risen by 300 percent over the last 60 years, from 25kg per person to 47kg per person. Per capita consumption of animal products is also expected to keep rising in the coming years, and those in wealthy nations continue to consume the most.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2026\/jun\/05\/global-meat-supply-chicken-pork-fao-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">the Guardian<\/a>, previous FAO reports have been criticized for the \u201cbewildering\u201d absence of meat reduction from discussions of emissions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2024, scientists called for a report to be retracted after they accused the FAO of distorting their work and making \u201cmultiple, egregious\u201d errors. The FAO then received further criticism for its lack of engagement with the scientific community over those errors, leading one expert to compare the attempted dialogue to \u201chitting a brick wall.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the new FAO report mentions the negative impact of animal foods, it does not go as far as to encourage meat reduction for those whom consume the most. Cleo Verkuijl, a senior scientist at the Stockholm Environment Institute, told the Guardian, \u201cThis report documents the problem clearly but stops well short of that conclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reducing meat and increasing plant foods<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theccc.org.uk\/publication\/the-seventh-carbon-budget\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">seventh carbon budget<\/a>, the Climate Change Committee recommended at least a 20 percent reduction in meat and dairy consumption over the next 10 years, and at least a 40 percent reduction in red meat consumption by 2050. The committee also recommended replacing animal foods with sustainable <a href=\"https:\/\/plantbasednews.org\/news\/alternative-protein\/one-bean-per-day-europeans-million\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">plant-based options<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/plantbasednews.org\/news\/environment\/updated-eat-lancet-planetary-health-diet\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">updated Planetary Health Diet<\/a>, which is primarily plant-based, could prevent more than 40,000 early deaths per day and save USD $5 trillion per year through improved climate resilience, environmental restoration, and human health, more than 10 times the amount needed to drive far-reaching food system change.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Read more: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/plantbasednews.org\/news\/environment\/animal-agriculture-responsible-uk-heatwave\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Animal Agriculture Is Responsible For The UK\u2019s 40C Heatwave<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Food system collapse and extreme heat<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/people-eat-six-times-more-chicken-un-report-meat-emissions-3-1200x675.jpeg\" alt=\"Photo shows a large wildfire. Extreme heat has hit Europe for the third time this year, leading to raging wildfires in Portugal, Spain, France and Greece\" class=\"wp-image-380548\"  \/>Adobe Stock As extreme heat sweeps the US, UK, and Europe once again, Portugal, Spain, France, and Greece have experienced raging wildfires<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The current food system, which is primarily built around meat and other animal products, is extremely unsustainable, and, according to many, on the brink of collapse. In April, a <a href=\"https:\/\/openknowledge.fao.org\/handle\/20.500.14283\/cd9394en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">separate FAO report<\/a> warned of the negative impact of extreme heat on animal agriculture. Animal agriculture, in particular, is now considered the <a href=\"https:\/\/plantbasednews.org\/news\/animal-agriculture-exceeding-planetary-boundaries\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">single biggest contributor<\/a> to rising global temperatures and the <a href=\"https:\/\/plantbasednews.org\/tag\/climate-crisis\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">climate crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The UK has notably just experienced its third heat wave of 2026, following a record-breaking June and the second-ever 40C day since records began. Extreme heat has also hit Europe, also for the third time this year, leading to raging wildfires in Portugal, Spain, France, and Greece. Meanwhile, more than 20 US states have reported temperatures above 100F (roughly 38C) in the last week, causing several deaths.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>PBN runs a sponsored content model. To explore how you can get featured, please email <a href=\"https:\/\/plantbasednews.org\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection\" class=\"__cf_email__\" data-cfemail=\"34575b5a40555740744458555a4056554751505a5143471a5b4653\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">[email\u00a0protected]<\/a> or visit<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/everkinddigital.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\"><strong> everkinddigital.com<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The average person eats six times more chicken than they did in 1961, according to a new UN&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[78],"tags":[31235,20269,18,440,135,19,17,10464,5],"class_list":["post-580183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-chicken","tag-climate-crisis","tag-eire","tag-environment","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-meat","tag-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116900739031845595","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}