U. S. Eu food and Agriculture Comparisons

Additional trends in taste
Vegetarianism is on the rise in some countries.
Vegetarians adopt the diet for many reasons, which
might include a desire to reduce cholesterol in the diet,
ethical concerns about eating animals, or even a desire
to reduce food spending. Finding a strict definition of
vegetarian is difficult, and some vegetarians still eat
meat of one kind or another. However, consumers in
wealthy countries are trying to eat less meat. In the
UK, 7 percent of the population consider themselves
vegetarians, an increase over the last 5 years, and
many are cutting red meat consumption, particularly as
high-quality meat substitutes are available (FAS,
2000b). In France, vegetarian foods have a 2-percent
market share, which is rising (FAS, 1999a).
Affluent countries generally experience the most
concern about food quality, and the United States and
the EU, not surprisingly, demonstrate this fact. Not
only is the concern about being able to obtain
adequate food quantity less acute in wealthy countries,
but consumers are also more willing to pay what it
takes to get a variety of products. If all products are
the same, firms can take advantage of economies of
scale, and produce products for lower costs. If
consumers instead want small quantities of a wide
variety of products, free-range chicken vs. organic
chicken vs. soy-based faux chicken, firms will be
smaller, and incur slightly higher costs.
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The taste for variety also stems from a number of
other developments. Behrman and Deolalikar (1999)
find that taste for variety generally rises with income.
As transport costs fall, consumers find that they can
now purchase goods from a variety of firms, some of
whom are now farther away, and higher population
densities mean that more varieties of goods can be
supported (Anderson and De Palma, 2000).