The meat industry are the people and companies engaged in modern industrialized livestock agriculture for the production, packing, preservation and marketing of meat (in contrast to dairy products, wool, etc.). In economics, the meat industry is a fusion of primary (agriculture) and secondary (industry) activity and hard to characterize strictly in terms of either one alone. The greater part of the meat industry is the meat packing industry – the segment that handles the slaughtering, processing, packaging, and distribution of animals such as poultry, cattle, pigs, sheep and other livestock.

The meat industry in 2013

A great portion of the ever-growing^[1] meat branch in the food industry involves intensive animal farming in which livestock are kept almost entirely indoors^[2] or in restricted outdoor settings like pens. Many aspects of the raising of animals for meat have become industrialized, even many practices more associated with smaller family farms, e.g. gourmet foods such as foie gras.^[3][4] The production of livestock is a heavily vertically integrated industry where the majority of supply chain stages are integrated and owned by one company.

Efficiency considerations

The livestock industry not only uses more land than any other human activity, but it's also one of the largest contributors to water pollution and a huge source of greenhouse gas emissions. In this respect, a relevant factor is the produced species' feed conversion efficiency. Additionally taking into account other factors like use of energy, pesticides, land, and nonrenewable resources, beef, lamb, goat, and bison as resources of red meat show the worst efficiency; poultry and eggs come out best.^[5]

Meat sources

Global production of meat products

The top ten of the international meat industry

Criticism

Critical aspects of the effects of industrial meat production include

• hormone treatment such as steroids and the effect of consuming meat raised with these on human consumers, (see also Beef hormone controversy)^[9]
• animal diseases, e.g. mad-cow disease (BSE), avian flu, swine influenza (H1N1), avian influenza (H5N1), foot-and-mouth disease,^[1] some of which can spread to human consumers
• cruelty to animals is a common practice in the meat industry
• certain animal rights advocates and groups believe the production of meat is unethical^[10] and the industry should be abolished^[11]
• obesity – partially due to overconsumption of meat products
  See also: Red_meat § Human_health, and Beef § Health_concerns
• human disease associated with animal waste, e.g. through E. coli
  • cost of state services associated with the above, including meat inspection and health care
• human disease associated with workers in meat and poultry processing facilities^[12]
• overall ecological footprint of the meat industry, including the raising of feed and animal waste disposal
  • heavy use of groundwater for feeding animals
  • deforestation, extinction and other species loss especially in the Amazon region or other places where beef cattle are raised in what was formerly rainforested land
  • climate change via greenhouse gases generated by the meat industry is significantly greater than growing and processing fruits and vegetables. The largest agricultural methane source on the planet is livestock. Global greenhouse gas emissions from animal-based foods are twice those of plant-based foods.^[13]

Many observers suggest that the expense of dealing with the above is grossly underestimated at present economic metrics and that true/full cost accounting would drastically raise the price^[14] of industrial meat.^{[15][16][17][18]}

Possible alternatives

Cultured meat (aka "clean meat") potentially offers some advantages in terms of efficiency of resource use and animal welfare. It is, however, still at an early stage of development and its advantages are still contested.

Increasing health care costs for an aging baby boom population suffering from obesity and other food-related diseases, concerns about obesity in children have spurred new ideas about healthy nutrition with less emphasis on meat.^{[43][44][45][46][47]}

Native wild species like deer and bison in North America would be cheaper^[48] and potentially have less impact on the environment.^[49][50] The combination of more wild game meat options and higher costs for natural capital affected by the meat industry could be a building block towards a more sustainable livestock agriculture.

See also

References

Further reading

• Fuquay, John W. ed. Encyclopedia of Dairy Sciences (2nd Edition, 4 vol 2011), comprehensive coverage
• Nierenberg, Danielle; Lisa Mastny (2005). "Happier meals: rethinking the global meat industry" (PDF). Worldwatch Institute. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 July 2019. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
• Walsh, Margaret (1982). "From Pork Merchant to Meat Packer: The Midwestern Meat Industry in the Mid Nineteenth Century". Agricultural History. 56 (1): 127–137. JSTOR 3742304.
• Warren, Wilson J. (1 January 2021). "The Meat Industry Goes Back to the Jungle". Current History. 120 (822): 21–27. doi:10.1525/curh.2021.120.822.21. S2CID 231906705.
• "Meat Atlas 2021, facts and figures about animals we eat" (PDF). Friends of the Earth, Heinrich Böll Foundation, Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland. September 2021. Retrieved 9 September 2021.