Meet, Meat Industry

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Recommended: The treatment of animals ON FARMS

When people think of the cow that their burger comes from, they think of a peaceful, fenced-in field with cows grazing lazily. In reality that beef comes from a cow who is forced to eat something it cannot digest, in a cramped, loud feedlot, covered in feces. Big business has worked hard to hide the reality of food origin. The American government should create legislation that would eliminate this problem. Research is being done with invitro meat, otherwise known as lab grown meat. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should approve invitro meat for human consumption. Animal cruelty caused by the farming industry and large companies is a huge problem that can be avoided with scientific advancements in lab grown meat.
The American population does not understand that most meat that produced in the United States comes from four companies that have the meat market monopoly. These four countries are Tyson, Cargill, JBS, and National Beef (Ostlind). Meat in the supermarket or meat for a fast food hamburger most likely comes from one of those four. Tyson has the largest amount of U.S market share with 25 percent, while Cargill has the largest daily slaughter capacity of 29,000 animals (Ostlind). With such large numbers it is no surprise that 30 percent of the world's land is used for husbandry and that this industry produces 18 percent of all greenhouse gases (Grose 1). These companies also have lobbyists in D.C and old employees in many different branches of the government. This gives them the power to pull strings to get the government to turn a blind eye on this industry. With little to no government oversight, meatpacker do not take care to make sure that the meat is clean and free from diseases. If the government were to regula...

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...uelty caused by the farming industry and large companies is a huge problem that can be avoided with scientific advancements in lab grown meat.

Works Cited

Fox, Jeffrey L. "Test Tube Meat on the Menu?" Nature biotechnology 27.10 (2009): 873. ProQuest. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Grose, Thomas. "Labwurst." ASEE Prism 19.5 (2010): 18. ProQuest. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Hopkins, Patrick D., and Austin Dacey. "Vegetarian Meat: Could Technology Save Animals and Satisfy Meat Eaters?"Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 21.6 (2008): 579-96. ProQuest. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Ostlind, Emilene. “The Big Four Meatpackers.” High Country News. n.p. 21 March 2011. Web. 13 Nov. 2013
Radke, Amanda. "Will Lab-Grown Meat Catch on?" Beef (2012)ProQuest. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Vidal, John. "The Future of Food: Algae, Insects and Lab-Grown Meat." Food Magazine 02 2012 ProQuest. Web. 12 Nov. 2013 .

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