Consequences of increased global meat consumption on the global environment -- trade in virtual water, energy & nutrients

Funding Year: 2004

Research Areas: Food Security, Natural Capital

Regions: Asia, Europe, North America

Meat production is projected to double by 2020 due to increased per capita global consumption of meat and population growth. Most of this increase in production will come through industrialized animal production systems. These trends will have major consequences on the global environment. Vast transfers of "virtual" energy, water and nutrients will occur among nations that will have large impacts on local and distant environments. A full accounting of these trends and projections will give us the capacity to propose policies to ameliorate the negative aspects of these developments and position us to address the multiple consequences of industrialized animal production systems.

Learn more about the Environmental Venture Projects grant program and other funded projects.

Principal Investigators:

Hal Mooney, Paul S. and Billie Achilles Professor in Environmental Biology, Emeritus

Walter Falcon, Helen C. Farnsworth Professor of International Agricultural Policy, Emeritus

Roz Naylor, William Wrigley Professor, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Professor, by courtesy, of Economics