Boycott Big Meat

ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN

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#BoycottBigMeat

“Boycott Big Meat” is a national consumer education and lobbying campaign to advance the transition away from today’s centralized industrial meat production to a system of organic regenerative pasture-raised and grass-fed meat production built and run by a diverse network of local and regional independent farmers, ranchers, processors, and retailers who are committed to:

• Justice, including fair pay and safe working conditions, for all producers and workers throughout the supply chain;
• Respect for animals and all natural systems, including water, nutrient, and carbon cycles; and
• Public health, through the production of drug- and pesticide-free meat and animal products.

"Boycott Big Meat" was launched in July 2020, with several partners, including Forward Latino, Socially Responsible Agricultural Project, Mercola.com, Regeneration International and the national coalition of U.S. Farmers & Ranchers for a Green New Deal.

The campaign is endorsed by dozens of food, farm, climate and social and environmental justice organizations. View the full list here. If you represent an organization interested in endorsing the campaign, please email us and we will send you the sign-on form directly.

The COVID-19 crisis exposed as never before how our highly centralized industrial meat production system, dominated by a handful of huge corporations, exploits family farmers, slaughterhouse workers, and the environment—all while providing us with unhealthy pesticide- and drug-contaminated food. While the campaign is named "Boycott Big Meat," it's really about building something better. This is a campaign about taking back our food system from exploititve absentee corporations who care nothing about the communities where they locate their operations, and putting meat production back in the hands of producers who live in the communities they serve.

The #BoycottBigMeat campaign is hosting a series of panel discussions highlighting many of the issues that intersect with industrial meat production and the transition to organic regenerative agriculture. View upcoming events here.

Take Action!

13 Reasons to #BoycottBigMeat

13 Reasons to #BoycottBigMeat
We Need a Secretary of Agriculture Who Supports Organic Regenerative Agriculture!

We Need a Secretary of Agriculture Who Supports Organic Regenerative Agriculture!
Can the Green New Deal help end factory farming?

Can the Green New Deal help end factory farming?
How To Buy Grass-Fed & Pasture-Raised Meats

How To Buy Grass-Fed & Pasture-Raised Meats
Vegans and Vegetarians for Organic Regenerative Agriculture

Vegans and Vegetarians for Organic Regenerative Agriculture
Why are we letting a handful of 'Big Meat' corporations destroy our health + communities?

Why are we letting a handful of 'Big Meat' corporations destroy our health + communities?
‘Right to Harm’ Anti-CAFO Film Panel Discussion

‘Right to Harm’ Anti-CAFO Film Panel Discussion

Finding Common Ground: Can Vegans, Vegetarians and Meat-Eaters Unite for Change?

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Cows grazing on a lovely green pasture at vineyards in Styria, Austria

To eat meat, or not to eat meat: It’s probably one of the hottest debates around the dinner table.

But can vegans and vegetarians unite behind a campaign to #BoycottBigMeat—if the campaign incorporates grass-fed and pasture-raised meat production as part of the solution?

On August 25, the #BoycottBigMeat campaign hosted a Facebook Live discussion about veganism, vegetarianism and how meat is produced. #BoycottBigMeat is a national consumer education and lobbying campaign to advance the transition away from today’s centralized industrial meat production to a system of organic regenerative pasture-raised and grass-fed meat production.

Through conversations like these, we hope to help shrink the divide between vegans, vegetarians and producers of regenerative grass-fed and pasture-raised meat and animal products.

Connecting the Dots: Big Meat, Big Pharma, Big Vaccines and Big Pandemics

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black and white cow surrounded by coronaviruses and a syringe

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is surely the worst in recent memory, but prehistory is full of records of plagues and pandemics.

In more modern history, we’ve seen the Asian flu pandemic of 1957, the Hong Kong flu pandemic of 1968 and the AIDS pandemic of 1981.

Then, a decade ago, along came H1N1, a novel flu virus hosted by pigs. H1N1 was followed in 1997 by H5N1, a bird flu virus that first surfaced in Hong Kong.

What's different about these more recent pandemics?

They're directly linked to the “intensive confinement of animals” in factory farms, according to the Journal of Public Health Policy.

Big Beef: You May Not Recognize the Name. But This Bad Actor’s Meat Is Sold Everywhere—Except by Your Local Grass-Fed Farmer or Rancher.

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You’ve never seen this company’s name on a package of ground beef or steak. That’s because the world’s largest beef producer, JBS, doesn’t sell beef under its own name.

But U.S. consumers buy millions of pounds of JBS beef every year, under brand names like Cedar River Farms, Swift Black Angus, 5 Star Reserve and others, in stores like Costco, Walmart and Kroger, to name a few.

Consumers also unknowingly support JBS when they buy burgers at fast food chains like McDonald’s and Burger King, and at other restaurants supplied by the meat giant.

JBS isupplies Sysco, the world’s largest food distributor, which distributes to hundreds of restaurants, hospitals and nursing homes, schools and hotels.

Sysco, in turn, wholesales JBS meat and other food products to Aramark and Sodexo, food distribution companies that in turn supply institutions like schools, hospitals, government agencies, prisons and more.

JBS is big. In fact it’s the biggest of the world’s Big Meat companies.

JBS also has some big problems.