Feed aggregator

Australian consumption of chicken and pork both now far outstrip beef, mutton and lamb. Ben Phillips/Flickr, CC BY

Australians were once world champion beef-eaters but now you’re much more likely to find chicken than steak on Australian dinner tables.

Total meat consumption per capita in Australia has been stable since the 1960s, at around 110 kilograms per person per year. But the type of meat consumed has changed significantly, with chicken and pork both now far outstripping beef, mutton and lamb, according to historical data from researchers Wong et al and more recent data from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES).

(The apparent spike in beef consumption in the late 1970s is linked to Australia’s beef export trade crash and much of this spike was thought to have gone to pet food and by-products rather than the dinner table).

Whereas chicken was once a rare meal, eaten on special occasions, today the Australian chicken industry produces around 600 million chickens a year. Most are consumed domestically.

The per-capita annual consumption of chicken meat in Australia increased ten-fold from 4.6 kilograms per person in 1965 to 47 kilograms in 2016. The industry projects growth to 49.2 kilograms a person by 2019–20.

From the 1960s on, public health messages steered people away from red meats. There was also a rapid proliferation of fast food franchises selling chicken - notably the entry of Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1969.

Similarly, pork consumption has been bolstered by re-marketing. Once considered a red meat, pork was reinvented as “the other white meat” through a marketing campaign categorising pork as lighter and healthier, alongside chicken (and due to changes in breeding, pork meat really has lightened in colour over recent decades). While not as steep an increase as chicken, pork consumption in Australia has nearly tripled since the 1980s.

However, a major driver of these changes has been price, linked to massive changes in production.

After adjusting for inflation, chicken per kilo costs less than a third of its price than it did in the early 1970s, while real prices for other meats have been comparatively static. The Australian Chicken Meat Federation, which represents chicken producers, reports that over the five years to 2014–15, chicken meat was on average 50% cheaper than pork, 59% cheaper than lamb and 65% cheaper than beef.

Since the 1960s, most Australian chicken and pork production has become rapidly industrialised and automated in large intensive indoors operations. Piggeries and broiler farms have typically become specialised, intensified, high technology factory farm complexes. Intensification of chicken production has increased efficiency, in turn steadily decreasing the retail price of chicken. Around 70% of chicken meat is supplied by two privately owned processing companies, the Australian Chicken Meat Federation says.

Chicken farms in Australia have increased markedly in size and intensity. Our research on planning disputes shows farms of the 1970s housed around 10,000 chickens. Now, while nearly 600 million broiler chickens were slaughtered in Australia in 2014-15, there were only around 750 broiler farms, a decline from the 1990s. The average chicken farm now has nearly 120,000 chickens at any one time and some run into millions. The number of pork farms has also dropped, consolidating into larger operations.

Global meat consumption continues to rise rapidly as more countries – notably China – increase their consumption of meat and dairy products. Australia imports very little meat due to strict quarantine, but is a major exporter of beef, sheep and goats.

Sheep and cattle farms are more extensive, more common, and produce fewer animals than pork or chicken farms. There were over 66,000 cattle farms and around 39,000 sheep farms in Australia in 2015-16. Cattle farm numbers and the overall cattle herd declined slightly, although this belies the formation of two extremes: at one end large and export-focussed grazing, while other areas have seen a proliferation of sub-commercial, small-scale, scattered “hobby” grazing. The national sheep flock also declined, and is transitioning away from wool production to meat and dual-purpose breeds.

These transitions in production and consumption of meat result in some rural and semi-rural landscapes shifting to expansive, remotely-managed holdings in areas with declining population. Closer to cities, hobby farmers and amenity migrants sit in often uneasy proximity to industrial scale production.

As other countries take up Australia’s traditional fondness for meat, global as well as domestic forces continue to change the nature of farming and Australian rural landscapes. That, in turn, also affects the price and type of meat Australians consume.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

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Australia is falling far behind other countries in improving car pollution. , CSIRO/Wikimedia commons, CC BY-SA

Last year, Australia’s new cars were just 1.1% less polluting than the year before, according to a report released this week by the National Transport Commission.

This is the smallest improvement on record, and largely due to our growing preference for SUVs and utes. In addition, some locally manufactured cars actually became less efficient.

But the backdrop of this poor performance is Australia’s astonishing lack of mandatory vehicle efficiency standards (adopted by 80% of the world), which allows foreign manufacturers to offload their least efficient cars in Australia.

In the absence of strong regulation, vehicle emission reduction has plateaued. ‘Improving the efficiency of new light vehicles’, Commonwealth of Australia 2016, CC BY

These findings vindicate a 2016 report from the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics, which advised that in the absence of policy changes, the rate of emissions improvement could return to around 1%. The report also warned that Australia would be increasingly left behind by other countries.

Both predictions have come true. The NTC report shows the average emissions intensity for new passenger vehicles sold in Australian was 46% higher than their European Union counterparts.

This gap jumps to 80% for locally manufactured cars. Our local vehicle efficiency has not improved since 2012 and actually went backwards between 2015 and 2016. The difference is largely attributable to a 5.8% increase in Holden’s average emission intensity in 2016.

We’re buying more polluting cars

The NTC report found that consumer preferences play a large role in the slowing rate of vehicle efficiency improvements. Australians bought more SUVs and utes, but far fewer “green cars” (vehicles that emit less than 120g of carbon dioxide per kilometre).

Green car sales have fallen dramatically. Carbon Dioxide Emissions Intensity for New Australian Light Vehicles 2016, National Transport Australia

The proportion of green cars sold in 2016 fell to 2.5% of total car sales, from 4.7% in 2015. Lower consumer demand has reduced the number of green car models available, from 72 green car models in 2015 to 51 green car models in 2016.

Finally, total sales of electric vehicles dropped 80% in 2016 (219 sales) compared to 2015 (1,108 sales)

Strong government action

The cheapest way for Australia to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions is to introduce mandatory fuel efficiency standards. Without them, global manufacturers have no incentive to offer more efficient models, and a 2016 government report into fuel efficiency found that:

The best-performing variants sold in Australia were about 27% worse on average than the most efficient model variants offered in the UK.

The same report investigated the costs and benefits of three different options for efficiency regulations, which could be phased in between 2020 and 2025.

The cost and benefits of three proposed emissions targets for new light vehicles. ‘Improving the efficiency of new light vehicles’, Commonwealth of Australia 2016, CC BY Target A, the most strict fuel efficiency option being considered by the government, would deliver 6% of Australia’s 2030 emission reduction target. ‘Improving the efficiency of new light vehicles’, Commonwealth of Australia 2016

All three options provide a net financial benefit, with the most stringent regulation saving the most money (primarily though reducing the cost of fuel, but also by helping stay within our carbon budget).

Adopting target A, which proposes all new cars release a maximum of 105g of CO₂ per kilometre by 2025, will prompt car manufacturers to import the most efficient vehicles available. The price increase in cars would be recouped by dramatically lower fuel costs, as shown in the table below.

It will also deliver 6% of Australia’s 2030 emissions-reduction target.

At a retail fuel price of $1.30 per litre, an average motorist (as defined by the 2014 census) could recoup additional purchase costs for an average performing passenger vehicle within four years. ‘Improving the efficiency of new light vehicles’, Commonwealth of Australia 2016, CC BY

However the dire state of Australia’s road emissions makes a strong case for introducing new efficiency standards before 2020. Light vehicles currently account for 10% of Australia’s annual greenhouse gas emissions, about 57 million tonnes.

On the other hand, the NTC report found that if all new vehicles bought in 2016 in Australia had been the most efficient in their class, emissions would have been reduced by 59%.

Until we have firm fuel efficiency standards that create a consumer incentive towards low-emission vehicles and prevent global manufacturers from offloading highly polluting models in Australia, we’ll fail to make real progress in reducing road emissions.

Anna Mortimore does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

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