Texts for additional reading

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Livestock Processing and Marketing in the us

The term meat packing originated in colonial times from the practice of salting and packing pork in wooden barrels for storage or shipment to Europe. Colonial meat shops were the first retail meat markets. As cities grew, small packing plants were established. Animals were often driven on hoof from the production areas to railroad heads, often moved by rail to large terminal livestock markets.

Transportation and refrigeration contributed to the development of the market industry. Packing plants were built in large cities so that the highly perishable meat products could be moved quickly to the consumer. Before the advent of mechanical refrigeration, slaughter and processing were limited to the winter season, except in areas where ice was available for storage in the summer months. In the United States the first mechanical refrigeration system was installed in a meatpacking plant in 1880, and the first refrigerated rail car was placed in service in the 1870s.

By the early 1900s large meat-packing plants were established in all the major cities of the United States. Chicago, with its geographic location in the centre of the corn belt and livestock production, was immortalised by the American poet Carl Sandburg as the “hog butcher for the world”. Livestock were collected and sold through large central markets, usually located adjacent to packing plants. The meat industry reached its peak in the early 1950s. Automation of the slaughter and processing operations replaced the need for a large labour force. Newly developed interstate highways and refrigerated truck and rail transportation enabled the long-distance transfer of perishable meat. In the 1960s irrigation changed the livestock industry in the Southwest, and large cattle feedlots were established in grain-growing areas. Consequently, the finishing of cattle is no longer concentrated in the Midwest but has spread over a much wider area of both the Southwest and Midwest.

Modern meat-packing plants are now located closer to the areas of livestock production because it is more economical and feasible to ship meat rather than to transport live animals. Often located in open country, most of these plants are highly specialised. Some produce only dressed carcasses from one type of animal. With the relocation of packing plants near the source of livestock production, most livestock are now sold by the producer directly to the packing plant rather than to brokers.

The retail meat business has also moved from the local butcher shop to modern self-service supermarkets. Many retail chain facilities receive packaged meats from processing plants for distribution to local supermarkets, but many supermarkets still have butchers who do cutting and packaging.

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Meat Consumption Around the World

Meat has been part of the human diet since the earliest known people, and remains an important source of protein and energy. Most consumers today are far from the source of meat on the farms where it is produced. Meat, like many other foods, has undergone several steps of processing prior to its appearance on supermarket shelves.

The major meat-producing countries are generally the major consumers. The highest per capita red-meat consumers are New Zealand, Uruguay, Australia, Argentina and the United States. Despite high production, India ranks low in consumption because of religious prohibitions. Generally, as countries become more industrialised and people’s incomes improve, per capita meat consumption increases.

Like most consumer costs, meat prices change with fluctuations in meat demand and supply. When demand increases and supplies are unchanged, prices rise. When the supply of meat is plentiful or in excess, prices tend to decline. Conversely, when the supply is scarce, prices increase. Consumer preferences for different types of meat also affect prices and supply.

Vegetarism is the practice of not eating meat, fish, fowl or other animal foods. Vegetarians do not consume meat for one or more reasons, which may include health, economics, principle, or religion. Hindus, for example, do not eat beef. Observant Muslims and Jews do not consume pork.

Meat cuts for the consumer

Carcasses are processed into retail cuts according to standardised cutting procedures. Since the various cuts differ in composition and tenderness, the lean cuts are separated from the fat cuts, the more tender from the less tender, and the thick from the thin cuts. The more tender cuts come from the back (loin) and the less tender from the leg of the carcass.

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