The Future of Meat

Nearly all sectors of the global meat industry face unprecedented challenges. In the United States, a handful of companies control much of the $218 billion industry, making it difficult for smaller players to compete. And the COVID-19 pandemic has taken a high toll, killing more than 200 workers and infecting 42,000 others in U.S. beef, poultry and pork processing plants and forcing dozens of those facilities to temporarily shut down. Globally, meat conglomerates increasingly are interconnected, with animal feed, livestock and meat being shipped across the planet. Growing worldwide demand for meat is raising environmental concerns, with many experts saying the industry exacerbates climate change, threatening global food supplies. Other experts disagree, saying animal agriculture is a relatively small source of planet-warming greenhouse gases. The industry's critics say factory farms pose human health risks due to their routine use of antibiotics, their storage of large concentrations of manure and by serving as ideal incubators for pathogens that can jump from animals to humans. Meanwhile, plant-based meat substitutes are challenging the industry, but they face obstacles of their own.