From We're Eating Less Meat. Why? by Mark Bittman Americans eat more meat than any other population in the world; about one-sixth of the total, though we’re less than one-twentieth of the population. But that’s changing ... The department of agriculture projects that our meat and poultry consumption will fall again this year, to about 12.2 percent less in 2012 than it was in 2007. Beef consumption has been in decline for about 20 years; the drop in chicken is even ...