JUST Egg: A China Story [excerpt]

In the 21st Century, China’s middle class has ballooned from an estimated 3.1% in 2000 to over 50% in 2018. Goldman Sachs predicts that China will overtake the US to become the world’s largest economy by 2035.

That dramatic economic growth has led to an equally dramatic uptick in the consumption of animal protein, bringing it with it an increase in obesity rates (nearly 70% among Chinese adults between 2002 and 2012) and the risk of type 2 diabetes, hypertension and cancer. With 1 in 5 people of the world’s population living in China, these trends have a massive effect on our global health and environment.

But the future is not set. In 2016, the Chinese government released new dietary guidelines aiming to cut the country's meat intake by 50%. These new guidelines called on citizens to consume just 40-75g of meat a day, reducing annual per capita meat consumption to 14-27 kg. Plant-based proteins, including JUST Egg, will be vital to filling that protein gap. Should these guidelines be followed, carbon dioxide equivalent emissions from China's livestock industry would be reduced by 1bn tonnes by 2030.

This is an excerpt from a film that explores how young people can be a powerful accelerant to this positive change.

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