London, September 16, (NIA):On May 17 this year, the British daily The Telegraph published an article to mark World Vegetarian Day, which said that Bangladesh, a Muslim country, has the lowest figure for per capita consumption of meat per year.
While the figure for Bangladesh, 4 kg per person per year, is surprising, giving the fact that it is almost entirely Muslim, the figure for India is not. India’s 1.2 billion people come second in terms of avoiding meat, consuming just 4.4 kg per person per year. Hinduism, which is the religion of 85 percent of the Indian population, extols vegetarianism even if it does not make it compulsory.
The eight other countries in this list of top ten countries with the least per capita consumption of meat are: Burundi, Sri Lanka, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Mozambique, Gambia and Malawi in that order.
On the flip side of the spectrum, it should come as no surprise that the country that tops the list of the most meat consuming country is the US. A single US resident consumes about 120.2 kilograms of meat each year on average, according to the 2009 figures obtained from FAO.
The tiny Middle-Eastern state of Kuwait, comes second in this category, followed by Australia, The Bahamas, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Austria, French Polynesia, Bermuda and Argentina complete the top 10.
It is also interesting to make a note that people in the high meat consuming countries are also among the most obese. The US ranks 12 th. on the most obese countries list, Kuwait 9 th. The Bahamas 10 th, New Zealand 24 th. and Australia 26 th.
