The growth of the global meat industry and the implications for
climate change, food insecurity, workers' rights, the treatment of
animals, and other issues.
Global meat production and consumption have risen sharply and steadily
over the past five decades, with per capita meat consumption almost
doubling since 1960. The expanding global meat industry, meanwhile,
driven by new trade policies and fueled by government subsidies, is
dominated by just a few corporate giants. Industrial farming--the
intensive production of animals and fish--has spread across the globe.
Millions of acres of land are now used for pastures, feed crops, and
animal waste reservoirs. Drawing on concrete examples, the contributors
to Global Meat explore the implications of the rise of a global meat
industry for a range of social and environmental issues, including
climate change, clean water supplies, hunger, workers' rights, and the
treatment of animals.
Three themes emerge from their discussions: the role of government and
corporations in shaping the structure of the global meat industry; the
paradox of simultaneous rising meat production and greater food
insecurity; and the industry's contribution to social and environmental
injustice. Contributors address such specific topics as the dramatic
increase in pork production and consumption in China; land management by
small-scale cattle farmers in the Amazon; the effect on the climate of
rising greenhouse gas emissions from cattle raised for meat; and the
tensions between economic development and animal welfare.
**Contributors
**Conner Bailey, Robert M. Chiles, Celize Christy, Riva C. H. Denny,
Carrie Freshour, Philip H. Howard, Elizabeth Ransom, Tom Rudel, Mindi
Schneider, Nhuong Tran, Bill Winders
