Meat production and global inequality (#journal)

The meat of the global food crisis

The global food crisis runs much deeper than market turbulence; the biophysical contradictions of the industrial grain–oilseed–livestock complex put meat at the centre of the story. Industrial livestock production is the driving force behind rising meat consumption, and the process of cycling great volumes of industrial grains through soaring populations of concentrated animals serves to magnify the land and resource budgets, pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions of agriculture. These dynamics not only reflect disparities but are exacerbating them, foremost through climate change. Thus rising meat consumption and industrial livestock production should be understood together as a powerful long-term vector of global inequality.