In its most recent annual statistics report, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) stated on Monday that the average number of calories consumed per person worldwide climbed by nine percent to 2,960 per day in 2012.
As per the UN, since the year 2000, people in all regions of the world have increased their caloric intake, with the greatest increase occurring in Asian countries in 2021.
Last year, Europe and North America consumed the most calories per day, at 3,540, while African nations consumed the fewest, at 2,600. At around 3,150, Oceania’s calorie count was comparable to that of the United States and Europe.
According to data from the UN agency, average temperatures in 2021 were almost 1.4 degrees Celsius higher than between 1951 and 1980. Europe witnessed the greatest shift in temperature, followed by Asia, while Oceania reported the least significant change.
According to the FAO, greenhouse gas emissions on agricultural land decreased by four percent between 2000 and 2020, with seventy percent created on farms.
In its Statistical Yearbook 2022, the United Nations agency observed that whereas cattle produce around fifty times more carbon dioxide than poultry, rice cultivation emits five times more carbon into the atmosphere than wheat and coarse grains.
Based on information from more than 20,000 indicators encompassing more than 245 countries and territories, the FAO has determined that 866 million people are currently employed in agriculture.
This comprises more than a quarter of the global labor force and is worth $3.6 trillion; compared to the year 2000, this implies “a 78% increase in economic value created by 16% fewer people, with Africa achieving double that rate of growth,” according to the UN agency.
Since 2000, the production of main crops such as sugarcane, maize, wheat, and rice has increased by 52 percent, reaching 9.3 billion tonnes by 2020. During this time period, the production of vegetable oil climbed by 125%, and palm oil production increased by 236%. Meat production, driven by chicken, increased by 45%, while fruits and vegetables increased by 20% or less.
Sugarcane is the world’s greatest crop by volume, with 1.9 million tonnes harvested annually. This fact is among the dizzying number of FAO-provided information that could appear in a pub quiz. Maize follows with 1,2 million tonnes.
In addition, global food exports have tripled since the turn of the century to reach $1.42 trillion.
The United States, the Netherlands, and China are the leading gross exporters of food in the world. Brazil was by far the largest net exporter, meaning it exported more than it imported, followed by Argentina and Spain. The largest net importers were China, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
4.74 billion hectares of the earth’s surface are agricultural land, comprising meadows, pastures, and cropland. Despite this, the total land used for agriculture has decreased by three percent since the year 2000, and it is six times lower per capita than it was at the beginning of the century, with Africa once again in the lead.
FAO’s statistics specialists also reported that global pesticide use peaked in 2012 and began to decrease in 2017. Saint Lucia, Maldives, and Oman are the nations that apply the most pesticides per hectare.
