What defines the industrial meat sector?
Attempts to define the industrial meat
Often this footprint is ‘offshored’
a small number of main feed crops,
sector largely focus on specific methods
through long supply chains that
such as soya and maize. Contract
of production – often those associated
externalise social and environmental
farming dominates much industrial
with the intensive animal agriculture
costs. For example, the soya that
meat production and is associated
methods commonly known as factory
feeds UK chickens may be produced
with high levels of debt for the
farming. However, in order to capture
on deforested and/or illegally
producer.27 Such concentration,
a full picture of its impact on people
appropriated land in Brazil.
along with a focus on international
and nature, a broader interpretation
Consolidation: The industrial meat
case of feed, but also for meat
meat economy can be characterised in
system is dominated by an ever-
itself), inevitably compromises
terms of its scale, long supply chains,
shrinking number of increasingly
food sovereignty (with populations
consolidation and concentration of
large corporations. Aspects of this
potentially being dependent on
land ownership, and extractive and
domination include concentration of
the output of corporations in other
exploitative nature:
land ownership with larger and fewer
countries) and may also jeopardise
farms; control of inputs, processing
food security at a national level.28
How
is still Slaughtering the Amazon
is required. Accordingly, the industrial
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supply chains (especially in the
•
•
Scale: Industrial meat production
and distribution by a few players
involves practices and volumes
such as large commodity traders
of demand that create a large
or meat processing companies; and
meat production is characterised
environmental footprint – whether
the concomitant centralisation of
by practices (including but not
in the form of land use (pasture
processing and distribution. Together
limited to conversion of natural
or land used for feed production),
these features define a system in
ecosystems) that degrade the
deforestation or other conversion of
which the objective is the efficient
land, deplete biodiversity, produce
natural ecosystems, GHG emissions,
(cheap and rapid) production of
significant GHG emissions and/
chemical inputs or polluting outputs.
specific products, often relying on
or air and water pollution, and
•
Extractive nature: Industrial
