Beef to become the 'caviar of the future,' says FAO

(Digivic)

On September 29, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) Henning Steinfeld, PhD, said that by 2050 beef may become the ultimate luxury food in price and availability.

Steinfeld, an agricultural economist, lectured on livestock at the 18th International Meat Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina on September 29.

According to MercoPress, an Uruguayan-based news source, Steinfeld explained the future looks bleak for young meat-lovers as "the necessary resources for the production of beef will be three, four, five times higher that those of chicken and pork."

And, he noted that by 2050 beef will be something for the wealthy, perhaps even "the caviar of the future. Beef will be what salmon was fifty years ago."

Bryan Weech, the livestock director with Fundación Vida Silvestre (Foundation Wild Life Argentina), also addressed the congress and spoke about "Producing Meat for a Finite Planet: A Step Forward."

Weech cautioned the industry that it "needs to do more with less" as the "world's population is expected to reach 9 billion people by the year 2050, with all the challenges this figure implies, according to an 18th International Meat Congress announcement.

"Such demographic growth will generate higher income and higher demand at the global level," added Weech.