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The greatest success story in the meat industry over the past fifty years was the growth in the sales of chicken. By treating chickens as “production units”, crowding as many as possible into windowless barns, and automating every step of the process from birth to box, prices were greatly reduced and chicken became the most popular meat in the U.S.

In the ‘90’s, the U.S. pork industry decided to follow suit. Massive factory farms (or CAFO’s – concentrated agricultural feeding operations) and smaller mini-factories were built and buyouts concentrated the industry in a few companies’ hands.

Marketing pork as the “other white meat,” the industry developed new cross-breeds that produced leaner pork and were also easier to raise in indoor confinement under these more “efficient” conditions.