Meatpacking Quotes

“A mere four giant meatpacking companies (Tyson subsidiary IBP, Cargill subsidiary Excel, Swift & Company, and National) now slaughter and market four of every five beef cattle born in this country”

“I think the men in L.A. are very rugged, good-looking. Men in New York look metro with their manis and pedis and their Bruno Magli loafers, but inside they're very masculine - aside from the Meatpacking District. The problem is the men in New York are five to one: five women to one man.”

“It was the same industrial logic- protein is protein- that made feeding rendered cow parts back to cows seem like a sensible thing to do, until scientists figured out that this practice was spreading BSE [mad cow disease].”

“The ratio of feed to flesh in chicken, the most efficient animal by this measure, is two pounds of corn to one of meat, which is why chicken costs less than beef.”

“Every day between now and his slaughter in six months, 534 [Pollan's steer] will convert 32 pounds of feed into four pounds of gain- new muscle, fat, and bone.”