SFagan NPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94 Meat: It’s What’s For Dinner From our fields, to our dinner plates, to our waistlines, the meat industry shapes our lives. Join Harvest Public Media and explore how the meat industry has changed the U.S. food system and the American diet in a multi-platform series, “Choice Cuts: Meat in America.” Find all of the stories in our series below. “Choice Cuts” On TV The Harvest Public Media Video Unit — in conjunction with public television stations NET Nebraska, KCPT in Kansas City and Rocky Mountain PBS in Denver — produced a half-hour public television special, which aired on public television stations across the country. Check local listings to catch the show on your public television station, or watch the full report online below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjZ4_ymdP9U NPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94 Choice Cuts: Meat In America Thu, 16 Sep 2021 08:04:33 +0000 https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Luke Runyon All week, Harvest Public Media’s series Choice Cuts: Meat In America is examining how the meat industry is changing the U.S. food system and the American diet. Beef, poultry and pork are staples of the American diet, baked into the country’s very culture, and backbones of the agricultural economy . But lately, the meats have been saddled with some baggage. Consumer groups are crowing about everything from meat safety to the health implications of a meat-heavy diet to environmental concerns about large-scale livestock operations. All the hubbub gives savvy entrepreneurs a business opportunity to offer up alternatives, and eke out a little space on the American dinner plate for their products: plant-based burgers, lab-grown chicken breasts, and cricket tacos. “There is a confluence that I can’t find a parallel to anywhere in American history to this particular moment when meat consumption is under so much attack and when so many people are arguing in favor of an alternative,” said https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/ready-cricket-taco-meat-alternatives-want-part-your-plate 188 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Tue, 06 Oct 2015 05:00:00 +0000 Ready For A Cricket Taco? Meat Alternatives Want A Part Of Your Plate Kristofor Husted All week, Harvest Public Media’s series Choice Cuts: Meat In America is examining how the meat industry is changing the U.S. food system and the American diet. While the average American eats hundreds of pounds of meat every year, many U.S. consumers are starting to cut back as health experts learn more about the risk of a diet high in proteins from meat and environmentalists challenge the way most meat is raised. That leaves farmers and ranchers to raise meat animals with health-conscious meat-eaters in mind. Switching up the feed Most cattle are fattened up on grain feed made from corn, soybeans and other supplements. But at Covered-L Farm in central Missouri, farmer Steve Landers switched his herd of 33 cattle to a prix fixe menu of pure grass in 2007. “And then the customers started catching on to what we were doing,” Landers said. “Now, we got more customers than we (have) beef. We bought more land. We got more cattle. We got more customers and it just stair stepped its way up https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/farmers-raising-meat-look-keep-your-changing-diet 186 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Mon, 05 Oct 2015 05:00:00 +0000 Farmers Raising Meat Look To Keep Up With Your Changing Diet Amy Mayer All week, Harvest Public Media’s series Choice Cuts: Meat In America is examining how the meat industry is changing the U.S. food system and the American diet. One of the most important tools of modern medicine is in jeopardy. In the 20 th century, antibiotics turned once-lethal infections into manageable diseases. They also contributed to the transformation of meat production in America. But now, overuse of the drugs in both humans and animals is to blame for the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control blames for at least 23,000 deaths a year. “We are nearly on the brink of being back in the pre-antibiotic era,” said Loreen Herwaldt, a University of Iowa professor of infectious disease and internal medicine. “And that's pretty scary, in terms of not having anything to treat people with who have serious infections.” As doctors came to rely on antibiotics for their patients, farmers discovered the benefits of using them in livestock. https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/lifesaving-antibiotics-risk-farmers-veterinarians-asked-curtail-use-livestock 174 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Sun, 04 Oct 2015 17:32:41 +0000 With Lifesaving Antibiotics At Risk, Farmers, Veterinarians Asked To Curtail Use In Livestock Grant Gerlock All week, Harvest Public Media’s series Choice Cuts: Meat In America is examining how the meat industry is changing the U.S. food system and the American diet. Americans have a big appetite for everything meat. We smoke it, grill it, slice it, and chop it. The typical American puts away around 200 pounds of beef, pork, and poultry every year . That’s true in many of the wealthiest countries . But developing countries are showing a growing appetite for meat. “Globally there have been very strong increases in livestock product demand,” said Thomas Hertel, an agricultural economist at Purdue University. “Most of those increases have been in the poorest countries and the (most) populous countries of the world. China and India for example.” Satisfying that demand sets up one of the biggest challenges for agriculture over the next few decades. By 2050, there will be 9.6 billion people in the world, making for more potential meat eaters. On top of that, Hertel said, incomes are expected to https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/choice-cuts-making-room-more-meat 172 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Sun, 04 Oct 2015 10:00:00 +0000 Choice Cuts: Making Room For More Meat Abby Wendle All week, Harvest Public Media’s series Choice Cuts: Meat In America is examining how the meat industry is changing the U.S. food system and the American diet. Drive down a dirt road, a two-lane country highway, even many Interstates in the Midwest and the view out the window is likely to get monotonous: massive fields filled with acres of corn sprawled in all directions. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) expects farmers to harvest about 13.6 billion bushels of corn this season, the third-largest harvest in U.S. history. A fraction of that gigantic crop will sweeten our food and drinks, about a third will be made into ethanol for fuel and, when you figure in exports and byproducts, more than half will go to fattening the livestock that become our chicken filets, pork chops, and burgers. While we don’t actually eat field corn - the kind of corn mostly grown in the U.S. - the Corn Belt is the backbone of the meat industry. "A lot of that corn, since it’s going into livestock feed https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/massive-corn-crops-necessary-satisfy-our-appetite-meat 173 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Sun, 04 Oct 2015 07:00:00 +0000 Massive Corn Crops Necessary To Satisfy Our Appetite For Meat