The meat of it

With China and India reportedly consuming more meat, the Western press has said that - quoting analysts who have said that it takes up to 8 kg of grain to produce 1 kg of meat - higher meat consumption would naturally require more grain for animal feed.

The case is also said to be true of dairy products and beer.

But experts have shot back at this claim, saying that people tend to eat less grain as they consume more meat.

In the last 30 years, Chinese per capita consumption of grain, or direct consumption, has been on a steady decline, NBS figures showed.

The urban per capita consumption of meat and milk, which many consider as the overall consumer trend of rural residents, have shown that the per capita decline in grain consumption in the country stands at 55 kg, closely matching the amount of grain required by the increase of 7 kg of meat consumption in 2006 over what was eaten in 1990.

Greens guise

The production of fruits and vegetables is considered to be different from producing meat and dairy goods. One main difference is that vegetables and fruits do not need grain as raw material, experts have said.

Consumers' standard of living is not calculated based on having more meat and milk, they said.

The middle class in developing countries has also been eating more fruit and vegetables as a lifestyle choice, NBS figures showed.

After a dip in the 1980s, urban sales of vegetables saw a rise since 2000. The sale of fruit have also been consistently rising since the 1980s, NBS figures showed.

As Chinese people eat better foods, they are not just eating meat and drinking more milk, they are also eating more vegetables and more fruits, experts said.

Figures of urban per capita consumption of non-grain items show that the increase in fruit consumption has doubled over the past 16 years. While urbanites consumed more milk during that time, the average per capita milk consumption of the whole country also stands at 13.5 kg, only one-fifth of the world average.

The ethanol connection

Experts have said there is ample evidence to show that the current round of inflation in food prices is not so much a result of developing nations' rising consumption, but rather a by-product of developed nations' pursuit of grain-based biofuels.

The International Monetary Foundation (IMF) has warned that an increasing global reliance on grain as a source of fuel could drive up food prices in poor countries.

"The use of food as a source of fuel may have serious implications for the demand for food if the expansion of biofuels continues," the IMF said in its twice-yearly report on the world economy, issued last October.

Similarly, a World Bank report based on a detailed analysis of the food crisis and conducted by senior economist Don Mitchell has showed that biofuels have forced world food prices up by 75 percent.