These 3 Countries Produce The Most Beef Worldwide

Humans have been cooking and consuming meat for 780,000 years and began domesticating cows more than 10,000 years ago. Each country's relationship with cows is different. While some groups have always used them for meat, places like Japan actually considered it a sin to eat meat (devout Buddhists thought so, anyway) and spent thousands of years using the mammals for labor instead of food. 

Those days are gone. As the world has gotten richer, we've started to consume more and more meat. In fact, global meat consumption has been rising steadily since the 1960s. So, who's fueling our obsession with this delicious ingredient? It turns out, just three countries produce 52% of all meat. The first two, the United States and Brazil, are predictable, but the third, China, is surprising.

Both the United States and Brazil have strong cowboy cultures and their BBQ styles are renowned around the world. As the birthplace of hamburgers and brisket, the United States clearly loves a good steak. Brazil is famous for its juicy churrasco, which cooks large skewers of meat over an open fire. China, on the other hand, is better known for dishes like Peking duck and dim sum than it is for its steak. And yet, the unexpected third place winner actually consumes so much beef that it has to supplement its production with imported meat. If its traditional dishes aren't as beef-heavy, it's because the country developed its strong taste for the meat fairly recently as income has risen and tastes have become more Westernized. 

These three countries not only produce more beef than any other, they dominate the market by a large margin. The United States is responsible for 20% of beef production around the world, which comes out to 12.29 million metric tons of meat. Brazil isn't too far behind, with 11.85 million tons and 19% of production. These numbers make one wonder if Brazil could someday overtake the United States in terms of its meat production, though this seems unlikely given that American beef is becoming so alarmingly large, butchers and consumers are having to adapt to the huge portions. Still, Brazil is probably not worrying too much about it, given that it's the top producer for other highly coveted goods like coffee.

China lags behind both of these countries somewhat, producing 7.79 million tons of beef, which represents 13% of global production. While not as large as the first two countries, these numbers are still impressive, especially when you consider that the entire European Union (the fourth largest beef producer) only makes 6.63 million tons and counts for 11% worldwide production. India holds fifth place, with 3.18 million tons of beef. If India lags behind other large nations, it may partly be because many Hindus and Buddhists don't consume meat. The origin of beef makes a difference in taste, so it's good to know that the two top-producing countries pride themselves in their beef quality, leading the way in global production.