I'm Elizabeth Hotson and in today's Business Daily, we'll be looking at the future of meat

in the world's biggest market for it, China. With a pandemic, soaring pork prices and an economic outlook

more fragile than it's been for years, we'll be hearing why now just might be the time

for meat alternatives to hit the

mainstream. With climate change, with pandemic, with African swine fever, with avian flu and all that,

at some point governments will also have to look at this as more than just purely commercial

activities, but rather this is about the sustainability of

the country and of the world.

Pork prices went up 20 to 30% in China, and that was one of the biggest causes of concern

when we interviewed everyday blue-collar workers was the price of pork.

But will the Chinese palate welcome proteins new pretenders in the form of plant-based meat

alternatives?

We eat a lot of different part of pig.

Different part of Chinese people love different kinds of food.

We are catering in the most loved sector of restaurant, which is Sichuan Hot Pot.

This is Business Daily from the BBC.

Humans eat a staggering amount of protein, and a big chunk of that comes from meat.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD,

says that total meat consumption globally will grow from the current 324 million tonnes

to around 364 million tonnes in 2008.

Over the same period, meat consumption in the world's biggest consumer

of protein, mainland China, is expected to increase from around 86 million tonnes to over 95

...