The dress worn by Chinese actress Gao Yuanyuan looked good enough to eat. It was made of lettuce leaves, part of an effort by animal rights group PETA to encourage consumers to go vegetarian as meat consumption in China keeps on rising. Draped in the dark green, form-hugging leaves, Gao also sported a necklace made of gleaming red chilli peppers. Chinese, historically, had a vegetable-heavy diet, but as incomes and living standards have rising among the nation’s growing middle-class, people are eating more meat.
On average, each person consumes 55kg a year. Jason Baker, from PETA, said that China’s consumption of meat has quadrupled over the last four decades, resulting in a number of health problems. “Per capital consumption is still lower compared to the Western world, but it’s changing — it’s getting worse,” he said, noting that factory farming of meat has begun in China as well. “Consumption is going up, and related to that so are diseases related to meat consumption – cancer, heart disease,” he added.
