MEAT CONSUMPTION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20032, 2 September 1939, Page 11

MEAT CONSUMPTION

COMPARATIVE FIGURES BRITAIN AND DOMINION^ Figures have been produced to show that the greatest consumers of meat are people of British stock. Tne American is a beef and pork consumer. Mutton provides a very small item of his fare. On the Continent of Europe meat forms a small proportion of the average man’s diet. But in New Zealand and the other Dominions of the Empire meat consumption exceeds that of any other country.

The amount of beef consumed annually in the Dominion ranges from l,7oQ,ooocwt. to 2,000,000ewt.; of mutton the quantity annually is 1,000,000 cwt; of lamb, 300,000 cwt.; of pork 120,000 cwt.; and of bacon 173,000 cwt.

A table of the average consumption a head of various meats in New Zealand, Great Britain, Australia and Canada shows the Dominion well in first place. Great Britain is far behind in beef and mutton consumption, and Canada shows a slighter consumption still. Canada, on the other hand, consumes more than three times as/ much pig meats as New Zealand, and 50 per cent more than Britain. There has been comment recently by medical men in England of the poor physique and health standard of recruits to the territorial force. It is a subject for thought, the extent to which this is due to the small meat consumption of the people —small, that is, based on New Zealand and Australian standards.

New Zealand people have always been light consumers of pig products, and the figures show rather strikingly

the extent. A cause, perhaps, is the relatively high retail price of pork and bacon with other meats. From the New Zealand producers’ point of view, the instructive fact is that the huge market in England for pork has only been indifferently exploited. The table is as follows:

N. Z. Brit. Aust. Can, lb. lb. lb. lb. Boer *140 GG 133 GO Mutton & lamb BO 31 73 (i Pig meats — 21 43 20 G8 240 140 22G 134 :! Vcnl not included.