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• Select either a background reading included with your class's closed research theme (in Modules) or a source you have found while researching for M06 Research Activity: Mini Annotated Bibliography. (NOTE: You are not committed to using this source in either your Mini Annotated Bibliography or in Writing Project 3: Argument; all that matters now is that the source is relevant to your class's closed research theme question and is a possible source under consideration.)
• Briefly explain the angles or problems you are interested in pursuing in response to the closed research theme question for Writing Project 3: Argument.
• Introduce your peers to your selected background reading or source you found using an Ivy Tech Library website search database. Explain how you think you could use this background reading or research source to answer your personal questions about the closed research theme and/or provide evidence for arguments you could make about the closed research theme question. Also, what new ideas, information, contradictions, or corroboration do you see in this source that you did not see addressed yet in the closed research theme readings? You are encouraged to provide relevant "They Say" summaries or quotes from the background reading or research source that you could use as evidence to support or validate your explanation.

Introduction 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. Cattle eat at an industrial feedlot in Floresville, Texas. As the global supply of beef, pork and poultry becomes increasingly interconnected to meet growing demand, the industry faces concerns about rising greenhouse gas emissions from livestock and the use of antibiotics. (Getty Images/Bloomberg/Daniel Acker) Overview Ranchers Mac and Celsie Sussex are trying to figure out how to set up their own meat-processing facility in Goshen, Wyo., to slaughter and pack cuts of their grass-fed cattle, after Wyoming in July became the first state to allow farmers to sell portions of their cows directly to Wyoming consumers. Selling directly to consumers cuts out the intermediaries, such as meat processing companies and retailers, making locally raised meat more affordable and helping small ranchers stay in business, say the Sussexes and other ranchers.1 2023 CQ Press, An Imprint of SAGE Publishing. All Rights Reserved. Page 3 of 31 The Future of Meat CQ Researcher A worker at a supermarket in Paramus, N.J., fills an online order in May. Grocers struggled with meat shortages and began restricting purchases earlier this year after the coronavirus forced some meatpacking plants to temporarily close due to the spread of COVID-19 among workers. (Getty Images/Bloomberg/Angus Mordant) "We put a bunch of feed in our cattle and then grocery stores and the packers are making the extra money off it," Celsie Sussex said. Whether Wyoming's new policy will aid small ranchers or help diversify the increasingly consolidated U.S. meat industry remains to be seen, but it is one of a growing number of issues facing an industry dominated by big players. As beef, poultry and pork producers try to determine how to keep up with the growing global demand for meat, policymakers and consumers are raising concerns about industry consolidation and its effect on the environment and human health. Responses to those concerns could have a lasting impact on the industry and the planet. "All the pressures on the industry are adding up," says Joshua Specht, assistant professor of history at Notre Dame and author of Red Meat Republic: A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Changed America. "It's not exactly a moment of revolutionary change, but all the issues about meat are now in the public conversation." Nearly one in four Americans say they are eating less meat, with most citing health reasons. Nevertheless, overall meat consumption in the United States has grown steadily in recent years, and global consumption has increased even faster, as incomes rise across the world. The U.S. meat industry, which produces beef, pork, lamb and poultry, recorded sales of $218 billion in 2019 and produced about 100 billion pounds of products. Globally, the industry is valued at $945.7 billion, and produced more than 725 billion pounds in 2018. This has also led to increased trade in meat, international consolidation of producers and U.S. producers' growing reliance on selling to foreign markets such as Japan, South Korea and Mexico. 2023 CQ Press, An Imprint of SAGE Publishing. All Rights Reserved. Page 4 of 31 The Future of Meat CQ Researcher Exports "deliver value for cuts and variety meat items that command a better price internationally," says Joe Schuele, vice president of communications at the U.S. Meat Export Federation, a trade association representing American exporters of beef, pork, lamb and veal. He says that animal parts not widely consumed in the United States, such as organ meats, can be sold abroad: "International demand maximizes carcass value and helps fuel expansion in the U.S. meat and livestock industries." But the hegemony of U.S. beef exports has been challenged lately, with countries such as Australia and Brazil emerging as competitors. Other countries are partly closing their doors to American meat in response to increased U.S. tariffs and concerns about the use of hormones, antibiotics and genetically modified feeds in American products. Four companies control 85 percent of U.S. beef and pork production, and three companies control 90 percent of the chickens raised for meat. The pork and poultry sectors are also vertically integrated, with a small number of companies owning multiple parts of the production chain, from animals to feedlots to slaughterhouses. This, along with a reliance on a cheap labor force for slaughtering and processing meat, means Americans pay less for their meat than people in most other developed countries. For example, one kilogram 2.2 pounds of beef round costs, on average, $12.45 in the United States, compared to $19.01 in France and $20.96 in Hong Kong. Critics of the U.S. meat industry say it puts profit above health, safety and the environment, creates a vulnerable workforce and makes it very difficult for smaller players to compete with large companies that have strong political lobbying power. "Meat companies make profits by pushing workers to their limits," says Specht, adding that meat plant workers often are immigrants, refugees or people of color. The average U.S. hourly wage for meat processing in 2018 was $13.68, compared with an average of $16.58 overall in the manufacturing sector. In addition, the per capita rate of workplace illnesses and injuries in U.S. meat processing is nearly 40 percent higher than the average rate for all industries, with a slaughterhouse worker losing a body part or sustaining another serious injury every 48 hours in the United States. In addition, as the coronavirus pandemic has shown, the U.S. meat industry supply chain is susceptible to disruptions, potentially putting the nation's food supply at risk. Last spring, meat shortages developed across the country after thousands of meat plant workers contracted COVID-19 and processing plants had to close. Some ranchers had to cull thousands of animals because there was nowhere to slaughter them. Since March, more than 42,500 meatpacking workers have tested positive for the virus in nearly 500 meat plants, and at least 203 meatpacking workers have died. Medical experts say the close quarters, low temperatures and poor ventilation in plants create ideal conditions for the virus to spread. The industry's concentration and vertical integration, along with the fact that most meat processing is regulated at the federal level, instead of by the states or local health departments, have contributed to the decline in independent farms and meat processors, according to experts, historians and industry analysts. Experts say federal inspection standards, introduced in the 1960s, were designed for large facilities and are too expensive for smaller processors to meet. Many remaining small farms have become part of the consolidated industry and now raise hogs, chickens or cattle under contracts with large companies. Big companies such as Tyson Foods and Perdue say this system reduces farmers' risks and provides them with a guaranteed buyer and professional support. But small producers who contract to raise animals for the large companies complain that they often have to borrow money to meet the companies' specifications for growing conditions and end up in debt and trapped in an industry in which they have no control.Small farms are in crisis mode," says Joe Maxwell, co-founder of Family Farm Action Alliance, a nonprofit group involved in research, policy development and advocacy for independent farmers. "There is almost no market for independent livestock producers because a few big companies have a lock on the market." While the industry has a long history of consolidation and poor working conditions, changing consumer preferences and increased scrutiny of the industry's impact on human health and the environment present new challenges. The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently declared that eating less meat is a key to mitigating climate change and ensuring an adequate food supply for the world's growing population. Globally, 14.5 percent of emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases come from livestock, and the sector requires other resources, such as water and land for grazing and growing feed crops. But industry proponents argue that other sectors, such as transportation, produce more greenhouse gas pollution, and that emerging technologies could make livestock farming more environmentally efficient. In addition, the industry has reduced its carbon footprint over the last four decades in the United States, even as it has increased production, they say. "The beef industry has a great sustainability story to tell," says Ethan Lane, vice president of government affairs at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the beef producers' trade association and lobbying group. "The cattle we raise turn nutrient-poor grass that is inedible to humans into high-quality, protein-dense beef." Debate is also growing over the negative health and environmental effects created by factory farms, called concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs. The share of U.S. beef raised in these massive facilities, which house thousands of animals under one roof, grew 7.6 percent between 2011 and 2017. Most of the world's poultry and pork is also produced in such facilities. Critics say CAFOs create large amounts of manure, more than 13 times the amount of waste created by people each year, which often is stored, untreated, in sheds, open pits, lagoons and barn basements. This manure can contaminate water and air and contribute to antibiotic resistance and the spread of zoonotic diseases, infections that spread from animals to humans. One proposed congressional bill would phase out CAFOs in the United States. Industry supporters say such threats can be mitigated and that CAFOs are needed to ensure a robust and affordable food supply. In the last two years, the popularity of plant-based meat alternatives has grown, and scientists have made progress developing lab-grown meat, although it is not yet on the market. Some analysts expect these products to take significant market share away from meat producers, and the meat industry has begun investing in these alternatives. Other food analysts say such alternatives will remain niche products due to their high prices, uncertainty over processed or unfamiliar ingredients and the difficulty of changing consumer habits. The industry also faces shifting global trade policies, struggles to automate meatpacking, federal investigations of industry consolidation and proposed legislation to limit the power of large companies. As environmentalists, lawmakers, industry leaders and small ranchers contemplate the future of the global meat industry, here are some of the questions they are asking: Does meat production accelerate climate change and put food supplies at risk?