industrial meat

Chicken farm crates are basically never cleaned

If a bite of food falls on the ground, often we pick it up and eat it. Five second rule, right? But if it falls in something gross or we haven’t cleaned the floor in awhile, we don’t eat it. Because that’s gross. Especially if your floor is covered in chicken shit. It’s unclear, then, […]

Will the Butterball raid yield any real results?

If turkey were beer, Butterball would have the brand power of Budweiser, Miller, and Coors combined. From six plants, the company produces 1 billion pounds of turkey each year and exports the meat to over 50 countries. Given this dominance, the Butterball brand has been a priceless asset to the company — until Thursday morning. […]

Baby steps: USDA tiptoes toward fighting animal cruelty

The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service takes an important step to crack down on livestock abuse. But there's still more work to be done.

Forget rice, think meat and yogurt: ‘Chinese food’ looking more and more like Western diet

Meating demand: Workers at an industrial meatpacking house in China try to keep up with their nation’s soaring appetite for animal products.Photo: Shreyans BhansaliIt’s Monday, which for many is now a meatless day, so it’s appropriate I think to highlight Howard Schneider’s Washington Post article on the long-anticipated Chinese meat-eating explosion: For China, the world’s […]

Flies and cockroaches carry antibiotic-resistant bacteria from factory farms, study finds

A fly’s paradise: Near a giant hog factory in North Carolina, downed pigs fester while sprayers spread untreated manure onto fields. Photo: Steve WingWhat sort of antibiotic-resistant pathogens are growing on factory farms, along with all the cheap pork chops and chicken wings? And what level of threat do they pose to our health? Well, […]

Turning cows into steaks: inside a mid-scale slaughterhouse [VIDEO]

Photo: Kate SommersThere are many levels of animal eaters, farmers, and processors in this country. Even among the green-minded, we have passionate vegans and rampant paleo-style carnivores. There are those who support large farms for their efficiency, and those who want every farm to have only an acre of produce, a cow, and five chickens. […]

Taco Bell says, 'Thank you for suing us'

The fast food chain, victim of a class-action lawsuit claiming that its taco beef is only 35 percent actual beef, has released a very polite new ad.