Essere Animali presents the dossier "2010-2019. Dieci anni di zootecnia in Italia", a document gathering data on animals farmed and slaughtered in Italy over the past decade, analysing changes both in the consumption habits of the Italian population with regard to meat, fish and other animal-derived products, and in the related production supply chains.

Compared with 2010, are Italians eating more or less meat? Is milk still considered an indispensable food? Is the number of animals farmed and slaughtered stable or in decline?

Essere Animali has found answers to all these questions by consulting numerous authoritative sources and compiling, in a rigorous report, data for every individual livestock sector. In doing so, it has drawn up, for the first time in Italy, a precise picture of the agri-food industry and of consumption of animal-derived products.

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In general terms, the dossier highlights a fall in red meat consumption at the expense of a growing increase in white meat and fish, a collapse in the slaughter of certain animal species and a gradual but steady substitution of milk with plant-based alternatives.

Essere Animali, long active in exposing the conditions of animals inside intensive farms and the environmental impact linked to current levels of meat production and consumption, is releasing this report so that it may serve as a useful tool for all stakeholders interested in these issues, from institutions to universities, through to NGOs and the media.

The aim is to offer a summary of the changes that have taken place in Italy over the course of ten years, interpreting the reasons underlying these variations, so as to more easily identify the actions to be taken in the future in the direction of a food system that is more ethical for animals and more sustainable for our planet.

The most striking findings to emerge from the research on meat and fish consumption

The dossier immediately makes clear that over the past ten years per capita meat consumption has fallen by 7 per cent (-5.4 kilograms), a figure corroborated by the decline both in the quantity of meat produced in Italian slaughterhouses — down by 4.5 million quintals (-12 per cent) — and in the quantity imported from abroad.

However, despite the fall in consumption, the total number of animals slaughtered has increased. This is an apparent contradiction, the explanation for which lies in the decline in the slaughter of large, red-meat animals, such as pigs and cattle, against a rise in the slaughter of smaller, white-meat animals — above all chickens (in 2019 alone, as many as 511 million were slaughtered) — probably regarded as healthier.

A shift in consumption most likely due to the findings contained in the 2015 WHO (World Health Organization) report, in which red meat was classified as a probable human carcinogen.

Probably for the same reason, fish consumption has grown by around 33 per cent over ten years, driven above all by greater recourse to imports. In Italy, production from fishing is in decline, while that from aquaculture remains stable.

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While it is true that health-related guidance has played a fundamental role in influencing food choices, it is equally true that concerns for animal welfare have grown in parallel, fuelled by the spread of investigations carried out inside intensive farms, whose critical conditions Essere Animali has exposed on numerous occasions.

On this point, slaughter rates have collapsed for certain species in which Italy was a European leader in both farming and meat consumption. Among these are horses and rabbits, down by 70 per cent and 30 per cent respectively, as well as lambs, which have also fallen by 30 per cent.

It is clear that the empathy factor has played a key role in the decline in the slaughter of these animals, towards which many people today feel greater sensitivity.

Data on the consumption of other animal-derived products

Milk consumption, however, has also collapsed. Italians today drink 7.6 litres less than ten years ago, a figure that tallies with the increase in purchases of plant-based drinks, which are more easily digestible and now readily available in all supermarkets. Cheese consumption, meanwhile, remains stable, as does egg consumption, the latter only slightly down.

The egg production supply chain is the only sector in which changes in farming methods are taking place, with numerous companies having abandoned cages (still the most widely used farming method today) in favour of free-range farming. Even so, these are still intensive farms, the type that accounts for the vast majority of production in Italy, including PDO production. The report indeed highlights how only 1 per cent of meat farms are organic.

What is more, with a few timid exceptions — such as a slight increase in organic beef cattle farming — so-called large farms are on the rise, capable of housing thousands of animals in a single shed.

Read also: The five "NOs" to intensive farming

The events that have shaped habits over these years and the future outlook

The past decade has been one that thrust these issues into the media spotlight. Animal rights organisations carried out the first investigations into farms and slaughterhouses in Italy, bringing to light the conditions in which animals live, subjected to countless forms of suffering and unacceptable cruelty.

Several television programmes broadcast these investigations, while also citing the WHO's warning on red meat and the appeals from the UN and many scientific bodies about the environmental unsustainability of a diet based on animal products. This information reached millions of people, helping to shift attitudes and foster a renewed awareness.

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As the report illustrates, a shift in perspectives and habits is already becoming visible, though its most significant results will be seen in the future, since it is above all younger generations that are embracing these changes. It is indeed young people who are most sensitive to these issues and most inclined to change their habits; yet each of us, as consumers, can play a fundamental role in steering the food production system towards a more sustainable path, one more attentive to the health of animals, the environment and human beings.