heavy use of groundwater for feeding animals.overall ecological footprint of the meat industry, including the raising of feed and animal waste disposal.human disease associated with workers in meat and poultry processing facilities.cost of state services associated with the above, including meat inspection and health care.human disease associated with animal waste, e.g.See also: Red_meat § Human_health, and Beef § Health_concerns Meat sources Estimated world livestock numbers (million head) type Additionally taking into account other factors like use of energy, pesticides, land, and nonrenewable resources, beef, lamb, goat, and bison as resources of red meat show the worst efficiency poultry and eggs come out best. In this respect, a relevant factor is the produced species' feed conversion efficiency. The livestock industry not only uses more land than any other human activity, but it's also one of the largest contributors to water pollution and a huge source of greenhouse gas emissions. The production of livestock is a heavily vertically integrated industry where the majority of supply chain stages are integrated and owned by one company. Many aspects of the raising of animals for meat have become industrialized, even many practices more associated with smaller family farms, e.g. A great portion of the ever-growing meat branch in the food industry involves intensive animal farming in which livestock are kept almost entirely indoors or in restricted outdoor settings like pens.

Book about the meat industry