China’s Growing Appetite for Meat

China now consumes 71 million tons of meat annually, about twice as much as the United States consumes, according to Earth Policy Institute researcher Janet Larsen. This represents more than a fourth of all the meat produced worldwide.

Chinese consumers are demanding more meat than ever, primarily pork. Meanwhile, the United States remains a nation of beef eaters, consuming 11 million tons a year compared with the 6 million tons in consumed in China.

Increased meat consumption also increases demand for grain, particularly corn and soybeans used for livestock feed—which competes with energy and other sectors for a share of the global grain supply. For instance, the U.S. ethanol industry now commands 30% of the U.S. grain crop.

No longer grain self-sufficient, China imported a net 7 million tons in 2011. As meat consumption continues to soar, so will feed imports and global grain prices, warns Larsen.

Source: Earth Policy Institute, www.earth-policy.org.

More Doctors on the Way

U.S. medical school enrollment is on pace to increase 30% by 2016, meeting targets set to avoid future shortages of physicians, according to Darrell G. Kirch, president of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

A shortage of more than 90,000 primary care and specialty doctors is anticipated in the United States by 2020. In addition to medical schools enrolling more students, there needs to be more openings created for residency training positions, which prepare new doctors for independent practice, says Kirch.

He warns that, without an increase in federal funding to expand residency training, “it may become more difficult for medical students to complete their training and for patients to get the care they need.”

Source: Association of American Medical Colleges, www.aamc.org.

Oil Shale Challenges and Opportunities

There may be vast amounts of oil waiting to be unlocked from shale deposits, which could help defer concerns about peak oil farther in the future. But there are also challenges to tapping this unconventional source, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Opportunities:

• Oil shale deposits in the Green River Formation (Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming) may contain 3 trillion barrels of oil. Half of this may be recoverable, matching the entire world’s known oil reserves.
• Developing shale oil resources could create jobs, increase wealth, and enhance government revenues in tax and royalty payments.

Challenges:

• Development projects could compromise habitats, displace wildlife, strain water and power resources locally, and affect the quality of surface and groundwater.
• Oil-shale processing could also contribute to long-term increases in air pollution.
• The skills required by the jobs created would likely require an influx of new workers and their families, adding stress to local infrastructure and resources.

Source: U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov.

WordBuzz: Micro Urban

Nestled between the metropolitan and micropolitan categories officially defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget is an unofficial hybrid hometown dubbed micro urban—places with big-city amenities and a small-town feel.

Urban areas have 1,000 people or more per square mile and more than 50,000 people; micropolitan regions have 10,000 to 49,999 people but lack the economic, cultural, or political importance of large, urbanized regions.

A micro-urban area is, as the word suggests, small—250,000 people or fewer—but offers all of the population diversity, culture, art, technology, and public conveniences that are usually associated with major urban centers such as New York City. Examples include Champaign-Urbana, Fargo, Syracuse, Iowa City, and Roanoke.

As more knowmads choose homes based on community and culture rather than jobs, micro-urban living could become a macrotrend.

For more information, see the Micro Urban blog (www.microurban.org) launched by Meet-Up co-founder Peter Kamali (@kamali on Twitter). Kenneth J. Moore contributed to this story.