Taiwan consumes the most meat in East Asia

The average Taiwanese consumes 77.1kg of meat each year, exceeding that of people in mainland China, Japan and South Korea and slightly behind Americans and Germans.

This data is released by the Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy.

Council of Agriculture data from 2006 shows that the amount of meat consumed each year in Taiwan per person is more than 16kg greater than China, at 60.8kg, and far more than the average consumption of 40kg in Japan and South Korea, and close to Germany's 79.1kg and 77.3kg in the US.

Eugene Chien, chairman of the Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy, cited a recommendation from Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, that in order to help delay the effects of global warming, the public should eat less meat, use bicycles to travel and decrease consumption.

In order to meet its goals of conserving energy, the Council for Economic Planning and Development will establish a task force to evaluate environmental policies aimed at energy conservation. It invited Chien to present a report on the effects of climate change on Taiwan.

A former head of the Environmental Protection Agency and minister for foreign affairs, Chien said that every 1kg of beef is equal to consuming 10kg of wheat, producing 36kg of carbon dioxide, and more than 100 types of toxic gas - produced by cows - eroding 35kg of surface soil.

Chien also recommended energy conservation in other areas.

Citing architecture as an example, he said energy can be conserved by using more efficient lighting, home appliances and air-conditioning or insulating walls. In industrial technology, energy can be conserved using hybrid cars, changing raw materials and using alternatives to fossil fuels.

In agriculture, changes can be made to methods of raising livestock, sewage systems and decreasing production of carbon dioxide, he said.