‘Timothy Robinson and his co-authors put together a series of maps showing the global distribution of various widely eaten animals. This map shows where the world’s pigs live, and makes the point that the taste for delicious pork varies widely around the world. North Americans, Europeans, and Chinese people all eat pigs, but China’s enormous population and the relatively low cost of pork make it the clear leader in global pork production. Meanwhile, Latin America and Africa seem broadly pig-averse, as is (of course) the Muslim world. The lack of pigs in India — a country with many vegetarians and many Muslims — is also noteworthy, though you see that in northeastern India, where there are more cultural ties to southeast Asia, there are some pigs.’

An author of this livestock series of maps is Tim Robinson, a senior scientist at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in Nairobi, Kenya.

Another of the 32 maps was developed by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) to show the distribution of global hunger.

‘This map from the Institute for Food Policy Research illustrates the world’s ability (or lack thereof) to conquer the basic problem of hunger. The big picture conclusion that India and sub-Saharan Africa have more hunger than wealthier regions is not so surprising. The fact that China, despite its much-hyped recent economic growth, continues to have a bigger hunger problem than countries like Cuba or Morocco is more intriguing. Given China’s enormous population and increasing prosperity, there seems to be a realistic chance to take a huge bite out of the world hunger problem if the PRC government is able to get better at feeding its people.’

See this and 31 other maps in this series explaining ‘the global economy’ from Vox.com, the new news site ambitious to ‘deliver really good, really clear, really comprehensive online summaries of issues in the news’.

Read more about the series of livestock distribution maps by Tim Robinson and colleagues:

ILRI News Blog: New maps for navigating a sea of changes in livestock production, 30 May 2014.