Millions of people around the world eat meat - but how many of us really know where it comes from and how it was made?
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How safe is the meat we eat?
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A lot it comes via intensive farming methods. Factory farming - the term often used to describe the large-scale industrialised production of livestock & poultry - aims to produce animal products as quickly and as cheaply as possible.
And those in favour of the industry, say it does just that. Global meat production has more than doubled since the 1970s - and meat is now cheaper and more abundant than ever before.
Proponents also argue that intensive farming is efficient and safe.
But outbreaks in recent years of diseases such as Mad Cow Disease and Bird Flu have brought with them new questions - questions about how livestock is cared for, how far food travels before it lands on our plates, and how much we're prepared to pay for what we eat.
Critics claim intensive farming methods are to blame for the spread of animal-to-human diseases. And they argue the feeding of antibiotics to the animals we eat has led to the rise of so-called 'superbugs' or antibiotic resistant bacteria.
They also say factory farming is inhumane, damaging to the environment and disastrous for the livelihoods of small-scale farmers.
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So is it time to re-think what we eat?
The Panellists:
Gerard Laugs - he's the campaign coordinator and director of the Dutch arm of Compassion in World Farming.
Dr Gé Backus - a professor of the Agricultural University in Wageningen.
Ben Dellaert - a sector director for the Dutch Product Boards for Livestock, Meat and Eggs (PVE)
The program also feature comments from Danielle Nierenberg, a Research Associate at the Worldwatch Institute, and author of 'Rethinking the global meat industry'
Some key Quotes:
Danielle Nierenberg on why she is against factory farming:
"To sum it up these farms are inhumane and ethically and economically disruptive. They tend to treat animals and workers poorly. They hurt their environment and undermine public health."
"To make sure not all livestock raising is harmful and to make sure not all meat eating is harmful, we need to reform these farms and create alternatives and have people rethinking the place of meat in their diet."
On public health concerns and the possible risk of spreading disease:
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Is factory farming to blame for the spread of animal-to-human diseases?
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Danielle Nierenberg:
"The characteristics of factory farming, things like crowding animals all together, the decreased genetic diversity of these animals as well as the medications that are used on them all increase the potential for unintended or intentional attacks on the food supply.
"And when avian flu or another disease pops up in one of these factory farms it can spread quickly, and then because of our global transportation system of food and agricultural products the disease can quickly spread from farm to farm, from small to big farms and then all over the world."
Ben Dellaert:
"I think it's quite clear that our meat and eggs and all agricultural products are safer than ever, since we have all these control systems… that means we produce a better product than ever in the modern ways of production."
"When you hear people talk about it, it seems that if you have some kind of intensive farming that the risk of diseases is larger than it should be in other types of farming. That is certainly not the situation. The only fact is that of course animals can get ill, and if you do it [farming] in a more intensive way, the consequences are of course larger because it affects more animals at the same time."
"But there is also a big misunderstanding about the risk of the spreading of, for example, the AI virus by transportation. It is said birds are carried around the world. That is certainly not the situation and the greater risk we have is the influence of wild birds spreading the virus."
On the feeding of antibiotics to the animals we eat:
Danielle Nierenberg:
"Scientists are finding the overuse of antibiotics in food animals is contributing to the antibiotics resistance in humans. Because these animals are fed low levels of antibiotics every day, when you or I eat that meat we're getting a dose of antibiotics as well. So if one of us gets sick it's harder to treat the ailment that we get… the antibiotics that our doctor prescribes us don't work because we already resistant to them."
Ben Dellaert
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| The use of antibiotics is a cause for concern |
"Ms Nierenberg is obviously from outside of the European Union, because inside the EU all antibiotics used as a growth promoter are forbidden from the 1st January this year. So this is not an issue anymore."
"What is relevant is that if you use them for a therapeutic use, it is then not allowed to use these animals for slaughter. So they have a certain time they should stay on the farm, so the antibiotics cannot be found back in the meat. It means that it's completely safe after a certain period."
"The only strange thing is that we import a lot of meat from outside the EU where they do not have these legislations. And in the WTO we do not have any legislation about this."
Gerard Laugs:
"We know that last year the use of antibiotics increased by 12 percent [in the EU] and in the Dutch intensive livestock industry 500 thousand kilos of antibiotics were used. And in spite of [the EU ban] the use of antibiotics has grown."
"And [in the EU] antibiotics are still being used as therapeutically - when they are sick or prevent illness. It's not allowed to be put in the food to make them grow faster, but all other uses are still allowed."
"What we see is since the use of antibiotics in the food as an additive has been banned the other use of antibiotics has been growing."
Danielle Nierenberg on the potential environmental impact of factory farming:
"When you have millions and millions of animals crammed together they produce a lot of manure and not all of that can be utilised as fertiliser so its either stored or sprayed or injected on to field so it can contaminate ground water, it can run off into streams and all of that is going on, on a daily basis."
"What we feed animals is also a problem. In the United States and in many other countries around the world, we're allowed to feed cows for instance saw dust, waste materials, manure from other animals, so what ends up in the faeces of these animals is sort of a toxic stew."
A selection of your reactions:
George Kay, California:
"It is safer, in my opinion, to not eat meat at all. No meat is safe meat."
Dave, Canada:
"The same as when people live close together, disease spreads more quickly, when animals are close together we have the same problem. This doesn't mean you should stop people living in cities or animals living on commercial farms. The population of the world is 6 billion, that's a lot of food and we need large-scale farms producing high quality meat for the masses. The problems of BSE and bird flu have been turned into issues by the media and are not a serious threat to anyone's health. And they can also be overcome using modern methods of medicine. I don't see the problem with factory farming."
Jude Kirkham, Canada:
"The greatest hope for moving to a healthy and ethical diet lies with technology. Developing crops that have high yields and a minimal environmental impact, as well as entirely affordable, satisfying meat substitutes are only a matter of time. How ironic it is then, that the activists who should embrace technology instead insist on turning the clock back to before the green revolution. I've even had the misfortune to encounter people who, ignorant of the famines, which wracked India and China barely a generation ago, deny there ever was a green revolution. My question is then what role if any they see for genetic engineering in moving away from our current, carnivorous diet?"
Alisa Booze Troetschel, United States:
"Is factory farming inhumane? How do we define humane treatment of animals? If factory farming is inhumane, then how do we as citizens justify its legality? How do we as consumers justify our support of factory farming at the cash register? And, are we willing to take the place of the farmer and the slaughterhouse worker? In other words, are we willing to take full responsibility for our food choices?"
Brian Merritt, Canada:
"The meat, poultry, dairy and egg industries employ technological short cuts - such as drugs, hormones, and other chemicals - to maximise production. The agribusiness industry, rather than advising consumers to curtail their intake of animal products, has devised extreme measures (overcooking, antibiotics, etc.) to help consumers to circumvent the hazards of animal products and maintain their gross over-consumption of meat and dairy."
Roberto C. Alvarez-Galloso, CPUR, Miami Florida:
"We should eat a balanced meal instead of being dependent on one source of food."
Johannes van Schuilenburg, Australia:
"As a vegetarian, I have seen a deterioration of the health and conditions of the way the animals are treated and "produced" for the consumer, and the risk of transplanting animal diseases into humans, is a risk we should not take."
Jasmin, Amritsar, India:
"Animal slaughtering is inhumane. I remember going with my father once, two decades ago, to the butcher shop, the very scene was nauseating, since my father wanted fresh meat, the butcher caught hold of one of the cocks from the small overcrowded cage, I could feel terror in the eyes of the cocks as they panicked and struggled to get out of his hold…. I shouted, 'Stop it ...we don't want the meat.... please let it live...it's so cruel to take its life just for taste....''
".... I didn't eat meat that day and didn't eat for many years as every time the screams of the bird shattered my peace of mind and its eyes accused me of not saving it. We all don't feel that way because what we get is dressed chicken or cut pieces of meat. Animals can be pardoned for animal slaughter as they have no alternative but how can humans be pardoned who have the whole range of vegetables at their feet. I don't criticise the non- vegetarians but I do think it' s time we introspect."
Jack, Canada:
"Of course factory farming created these problems. These animals are pre -programmed by nature to roam free in a farm environment. Our interference in our effort to maximize profit has created mad cow and avian flu. These methods of farming are not in the best interest of the human food supply."
Vera Gottlieb, British Columbia, Canada:
"Give the meat industry another break? Another chance to put more farmers out to pasture? And let us not forget the growth hormones given to dairy cattle. Harmful to both cows and humans. Profits before people...so what else is new?"
Evert C. Weidner, Lansdale, PA, USA:
"Profit is no substitute for reason."
Margaret Diamond, southern California:
"Raising animals in the way they were raised years ago is costly and unfortunately customers are influenced by the price of the product, in most cases. The antibiotic dosing is what scares me, and the dosing of hormones to cows."
Tags: animal-human diseases, antibiotics, bird flu, factory farming, intensive farming, meat, organic