Beef Production: Ethical Issues

Synonyms

Animal welfare in the beef industry; Food safety; Human and animal health; Husbandry and industry; Sustainability of the beef industry

Introduction

The ethics of food animal production did not represent a significant area of societal concern until 25 years ago, with the rise of public attention to both environmental consequences of raising food animals and effects of production systems on animal welfare. Beginning with Jeremy Rifkin’s Beyond Beef: The Rise and Fall of the Cattle Culture (Rifkin 1993) and continuing with other books such as Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma (Pollan 2006) and the UN report of 2006 Livestock’s Long Shadow (UN 2006) and films such as Food, Inc. (2008) and periodic reports linking meat to the epidemiology of various diseases, ranging from cancer to cardiovascular diseases and bird flu, public scrutiny of meat industries has increased exponentially and led to campaigns in favor of limiting meat consumption, such as Meatless Mondays.In...