Scarcity could leave beef the caviar of the future

SCARCITY could make beef the caviar of the future, a luxury food item in the same way that salmon was half a century ago.

So said officials of the global Food and Agriculture Organisation at last week’s International Meat Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Henning Steinfeld, coordinator of livestock, environment and development initiative at the FAO (one of the United Nations specialised agencies), said beef will become an luxury food item by 2050 because of soaring costs of production, requiring up to five times the resources of chicken and pork.