ABSTRACT
In low-income countries, where diets are typically dominated by a single starchy staple, rises in income quickly translate into consumption of more livestock products and more fruits and vegetables. The 800 kilograms of grain consumed per person each year in the United States translates into a diet rich in livestock products: as meat, it includes 42 kilograms of beef, 28 kilograms of pork, and 44 kilograms of poultry. In the rapidly growing economies of East Asia, the amount fed to animals is climbing steadily. Only when countries reach middle-income levels can they afford to feed more grain to livestock and poultry than to people. The share of grain fed to livestock in Mexico has gone from 5 percent in 1960 to 31 percent in 1990. From 1950 until 1979, the world soybean harvest climbed from 18 million to 93 million tons, boosting per capita supplies from 7 kilograms to 21.
