Eating Liberally & Kitchen Table Talks NYC Present: What’s the Matter with Mass-Produced Meat?

March 28, 2011

More Americans are demanding higher quality meat–animals fed appropriate, antibiotic-free diets on small farms and slaughtered humanely–and they are choosing to eat less of it, too. Whether turned off by endless recalls, or turned on by the health and environmental benefits of eating less meat, growth in campaigns like Meatless Monday show a powerful shift in the Zeitgeist.

Meanwhile Big Meat is taking on the Environmental Protection Agency to maintain its right to let manure run into our waterways, as it defends the excess antibiotic use (80 percent of antibiotics used in the U.S. are given to livestock), inhumane practices, and consolidation of the industry as the only way to feed the world. The beef industry has even invested in a communications degree that aims to revitalize the consumer image of industrial beef.

The conversation around how we bring meat to the table is multifaceted and is the subject of a lively discussion on April 14 at New York University entitled “What’s the Matter With Mass-Produced Meat?”

Co-sponsored by Kitchen Table Talks and Eating Liberally, the event will feature Daniel Imhoff, editor of CAFO: The Tragedy of Industrial Animal Factories, Michael Moss, the New York Times investigative reporter whose exposé on E. coli-tainted industrial beef, “The Burger That Shattered Her Life,” won a Pulitzer Prize; and Marion Nestle, NYU nutrition professor who served on the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, and author of Food Politics and What to Eat, among other books. I am honored to moderate the conversation and welcome your questions below in the comment section or send me a tweet @civileater in advance of the panel.

The discussion will take place at Fales Library at New York University, 70 Washington Square So, Third Floor from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Please RSVP to rsvp@library.nyu.edu or call 212.992.7050. This event is free and open to the public, but please be mindful when you reserve a space as seating is limited. Books will be available for sale and there will be a signing following the event. Sustainable food and refreshments will be provided by Northern Spy.

More about the team behind the event:

Eating Liberally is a social network whose aim is to swell the ranks of ecologically enlightened “food citizens” through spreading the word about books, films, and other projects that promote an alternative, plant-based food chain powered by the sun instead of Sunoco.

Kitchen Table Talks is a regular conversation series about the American food system. Its mission is to build community and exchange knowledge and ideas that lead to specific actions to make meaningful improvements in our food system.

Photo: Nourishing Our Children Photos via Flickr

Paula Crossfield is a founder and the Editor-at-large of Civil Eats. She is also a co-founder of the Food & Environment Reporting Network. Her reporting has been featured in The Nation, Gastronomica, Index Magazine, The New York Times and more, and she has been a contributing producer at The Leonard Lopate Show on New York Public Radio. An avid cook and gardener, she currently lives in Oakland. Read more >

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Jennifer Vaughan
March 30, 2011
As you mention in the piece, Big Agriculture is always telling us how sustainable practices cannot feed everyone. What evidence is there to the contrary? Realistically what *would* America look like (in terms of diet and jobs and local/federal revenues and health care costs and environmental costs, etc.) if there were no "big ag" conglomerates anymore? What happens to the poor in this country if we don't have the glut of cheap meats and grains? How will we make sure more people don't go hungry? And finally, what would America look like if the farm subsidies didn't exist? Mark Bittman wrote a lovely piece about shifting the subsidies to healthy food grown by actual farmers, but what if we didn't use tax dollars to artificially price our foods?

Thank you! (I certainly wish I could attend this event, but I am not close by. I hope that you will post something about the discussion!)
Chef Mike Benninger
April 12, 2011
While i support the notion of smaller,less industrial agriculture, who is the other side in this event?? I don't see anyone...

The fundamental issue with the American diet is your national fetish for the cheap. As long as you keep electing lawmakers that continue to subsidize certain crops and artificially suppress their price, while allowing the cost of healthy foods to rise, you will continue towards obesity.

You need to demand better, to elect better, and to be more active in the fight for better food!