Really, sometimes, I get amazed with the knowledge of European and American leaders about Asia. EU Commissioner for agriculture and rural development Mariann Fischer Boel has stated that one of the major reasons behind the increasing food prices around the world is that people in China and India are consuming more meat than before.
In her blog, Fischer Boel wrote:
The EU uses less than 1 % of its cereal production to make bioethanol. The US uses more, but its domestic maize production has responded quickly to biofuel demand – so that the US has managed to produce more bioethanol and raise its exportable maize surplus. This has temporarily displaced soya crops to some extent, but we expect the global soya supply to respond rapidly.
A much stronger motor of price increases has been a rise in meat consumption in populous countries like China and India. Let’s remember that it takes about 4 kg of cereals to produce 1 kg of pork.
I am amazed with this remark simply because most people in India do not eat pork. Pork is strictly forbidden for Muslims and even most Hindus are not fan of it. Yes, with the changing lifestyle due to continuous economic progress, meat consumption has increased in India. However, most people in rural India are still very poor and often go on without eating meat for weeks and months.
The honorable EU Commissioner has perhaps forgotten that when it comes to consuming meat then an average Indian citizen can never compete with an average European citizen. So, I guess she should call upon the people of Europe to consume less meat than blame India and China.
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