ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of the book. The book illustrates the complexity of the meat industry, highlighting salient features across its entire production and consumption chain. It explains conceptually and details empirically the spread of a particular model of livestock farming that is predicated upon continuous intensification, focusing on the fundamental reasons that allow for its extension. The book discusses the impacts intensification has on food animals, workers and the environment, since the intensification of production is not self-evidently bad in and of itself. From an economic perspective, aquaculture provides a livelihood and income for nearly 16.6 million fish farmers globally, with 97 per cent of them concentrated in Asia. Meat consumption and, more broadly, the intake of animal protein are thus deeply entrenched in different cultural norms across the world.
