Meat, dairy consumption and fat intake in Finland
Visualization of some trustworthy data shows that Finland consumes more meat and dairy than it needs to, so much so that half of its population is overweight and 20% is obese. Finland consumed 71.26 kg of meat per capita in 2007 while consuming more dairy than any other nation in the world. Daily fat intake belongs to the 2nd largest consumption group as a result of steady growth of meat consumption along with alcohol, candies, beverages and snacks.
Finland has overcome many hard times–take Finnish famine of 1866-1968 or early 1990s recession as examples just to mention a few. Today, Finland tops global school table and is among the best in global innovation index. This is certainly a tough challenge, but I am sure that we can learn from the present and design the future.
Worldwide Annual Meat Consumption per capita 1 2007
See the interactive chart and data sheet on Chartsbin
Finland consumed 71.26 kg of meat per capita in 2007 that tied with Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and Poland. It’s less than the other European nations such as Spain (111.79), France (88.77), but almost double of what the dietary experts recommends worldwide.
Total Milk Consumption per capita 2 2007
See the interactive chart and data sheet on Chartsbin
According to FAO’s Statistics Division, Finland consumes more dairy per capita than any other nation on this planet: 361.19kg annually. In Finland, where enough food for direct human consumption cannot be yielded above a certain latitude, dairy and beef have long been the source of food safety . Today, however, 49% of female and 66% of male population in Finland are overweight, and 20% of whole population is obese. We are eating more than enough. In fact, the excessive dairy and beef consumption may have caused many farmers unwillingly increase the headcount of their cattle given the market demand and price pressure. 30 years ago, a family of four could make living with 20 cattle, but today they need to have at least one hundred.
Daily Fat Intake Per Capita 3 2005–2007
See the interactive chart and data sheet on Chartsbin
Daily Fat Intake per person per day in Finland appeared to be 129 g and belongs to the 2nd largest consumption group. Perhaps you have already noticed, that Finnish people are not too healthy – we have a lot of obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. What is interesting is, that these have been increasing parallel with increasing consumption of meat. However, at the same time also consumption of alcohol, candies, beverages and snacks has also increased.
Consumption of meat and eggs 4 1970–2010
Meat consumotion per capita has been steadily growing in Finland. There had been virtually no consumption of poultry in Finland back in 60’s, but it has replaced half of the beef consumption gradually over the past decades. Today, the consumption of beef and poultry by weight are almost the same.
Posted by Seungho Lee
References
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) 2010, Livestock and Fish Primary Equivalent, 02 June 2010, FAOSTAT on-line statistical service, FAO, Rome, retrieved on 1st November, 2010, link. ↑
- Milk Consumption – Excluding Butter (Total) (kg/capita/yr), FAO Statistics Division 2011, retrieved on 19th May, 2011, link. ↑
- FAO Statistics Division 2010, Food Balance Sheets, Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, Rome, Italy, retrieved on 17th March, 2011, link. ↑
- Finnish Information Centre of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (Tike), retrieved on 7th March, 2012, link. ↑