It isn’t necessarily wealth that determines what people consume, but rather what is available locally.
Look at Mongolia for example, which has higher consumption than China. Mongolian land is not arable in the least, so they are forced to rely heavily on locally produced meat from ranchers and herders. Their land is mostly steppe and desert, and grass grows well in the steppe. People can’t digest grass, but animals can.
Also, if you look into what many small tribal villagers eat in the northern US and Canada, you’ll see an oversized meat consumption percentage of diet, with it taking up a higher percentage of daily intake than what even the non-indigenous folks eat in the US and Canada. Meat is what is most available for many communities, even poorer ones.
It isn’t necessarily wealth that determines what people consume, but rather what is available locally.
Look at Mongolia for example, which has higher consumption than China. Mongolian land is not arable in the least, so they are forced to rely heavily on locally produced meat from ranchers and herders. Their land is mostly steppe and desert, and grass grows well in the steppe. People can’t digest grass, but animals can.
Also, if you look into what many small tribal villagers eat in the northern US and Canada, you’ll see an oversized meat consumption percentage of diet, with it taking up a higher percentage of daily intake than what even the non-indigenous folks eat in the US and Canada. Meat is what is most available for many communities, even poorer ones.
It makes sense that you eat what’s available but I don’t think the conditions for agriculture are that different from eastern to western Europe.