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. A great portion of the ever-growing meat branch in the food industry involves intensive animal farming in which livestock are kept almost entirely indoors 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. This heavy industrialization leads to an outsized environmental impact, responsible for significant greenhouse gas emissions, land use change and degradation, and water, air and soil pollution. The production of livestock is a heavily vertically integrated industry where the majority of supply chain stages are integrated and owned by one company. Each stage of the process of rearing animals to slaughter, is often concentrated in very few companies—with some companies dominating multiple stages of the industry; for example in agrochemicals used in animal production 66% of global revenue are concentrated in four firms, in animal pharmaceuticals 58%. For example, Brazil's JBS S.A. have secured market dominance in multiple sectors in the USA and Brazil and is the world's largest animal slaughter company. This large economic influence, both within countries and over international trade, has created significant political influence from the industry. A 2025 review of scholarship found that the animal agriculture industry has played an outsized role in obstructing measures to address climate change, by actively supporting disinformation campaigns, and preventing policy to address climate change.
Global production of meat products
Global production of meat in 2023 was 362.9 million tons of meat, most of which was produced in industrial supply chains. Meat production is globally dominated by a handful of super producing net exporting countries of meat and meat products, such as China (97.5 million tons in 2023), the United States (47.5 million tons in 2023), and Brazil (31.6 million tons in 2023) which produce, together over 176 million tons or nearly half of global production. A full list of producers can be found at List of countries by meat production.
Companies Among the largest meat producers worldwide are: JBS S.A. (Brazil) Tyson Foods (United States) Cargill (United States) Marfrig (Brazil) WH Group (Hong Kong) BRF S.A. (Brazil) Vion NV (Netherlands) Minerva Foods (Brazil) Danish Crown (Denmark)
Forecasts
A Food and Agriculture Organization and OECD project for meat production across the world, project significant increases in animals slaughter from 2025 to 2034, as global demand for meat increases especially in lower middle income and lower income countries.
Sectors involved When describing the meat industry, typically the focus is on the steps between breeding and rearing animals, typically in industrial-type operations, and slaughter, through to the processing and distribution of the meat. Like other parts of the food system—industrial scale companies tend to combine multiple of these items. Most companies involved in the meat industry, also own businesses, factories or brands focused on using animal by-products, such as slaughterhouse waste used in pet food, or creating inputs for the sector, such as cattle feed.
Animal breeding
Animal production
Meat packing Meat-packing also includes making processed meat.
Distribution A meat jobber, also known as a meat wholesaler or meat distributor, is an entity that purchases meat products from producers, typically in large quantities, and sells them to retailers. Meat jobbers came to prominence in the 1940s, as the American highway system began to expand, superseding rail-based branch houses. Some meat jobbers known as meat breakers or meat boners would further process meat. In preparation for resale to retail, they "broke" the meat down from quarters to subprimal cuts and boned them prior to shipping. Retailers used these meat jobbers since they offered flexibility in cuts, and independent packers used them since they had to do minimal processing, requiring minimal capital investment. A meat broker is an entity of the meat industry that brokers the buying and selling of meat, carcasses, animal products, and animals such as cattle, sheep, swine, goats, horses, etc. Meat brokers can also be known as poultry brokers or meat and poultry broker depending on their offerings.
Criticism
Criticized aspects and effects of industrial meat production include:
Hormone treatment such as steroids and the effect of consuming meat from animals raised with these on human consumers (see also Beef hormone controversy) Spread of animal diseases, e.g. mad-cow disease (BSE), avian flu, swine influenza (H1N1), avian influenza (H5N1), foot-and-mouth disease, including to human consumers The commonness of cruelty to animals in the meat industry Certain animal rights advocates and groups believe that the production of meat is unethical and the industry should be abolished Contribution of the overconsumption of meat products to obesity Spread of 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 Spread of human disease associated with workers in meat and poultry processing facilities
Many observers suggest that the expense of dealing with the above is grossly underestimated by present economic metrics and that true cost accounting would drastically raise the price of industrial meat.
Animal welfare
Environmental impacts Jhalani Amit et al. reviewed the impact of meat production and slaughterhouses and found that beef is one of the most pollutiong product in its lifecycle. The water footprint of meat is 10 times that of the agriculture based food.
Effects on livestock workers
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