Erik Marcus, of vegan.com fame, has compiled a document he calls “The Year in Meat: 2009.” Here is a snippet:

Most of the meat industry’s pain was from a faltering economy that was creating countless “recession era vegetarians.” An August USDA report showed that beef, pork, and chicken production had all dropped substantially. [...]

Nowhere was animal agribusiness’ pain more keenly felt than in the milk industry. American dairies were failing at such a rate that one observer predicted that a third would go out of business in 2009. To deal with the glut of milk, government and industry combined to organize a mass slaughter of more than 100,000 cows. Dairies spent 2009 looking for every excuse to cut herd sizes, and keep only the most productive cows. Overall, it appeared likely that more than 1.5 million cows would be slaughtered in 2009. The dairy industry’s pain was borne disproportionately by organic farmers, as cash-strapped consumers switched back to cheaper factory farmed milk.

To read the whole thing, please go here: http://www.vegan.com/articles/yim/the-year-in-meat-2009/

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Sections: Vegan News
Topics: agribusiness, animal agriculture, beef, chicken, dairy, erik marcus, meat, meat and dairy industry, milk, pork, recession, USDA, vegan.com, year in meat