Cattle carcasses move along the production line at the JBS beef processing plant in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. The company, which began as a Brazilian cattle ranch in the 1950s, is now the world’s largest meat processor with some 150 beef, pork, and poultry packing plants around the globe, and it has been criticized by environmental groups for buying cattle from illegally cleared ranches in the Amazon. With slower growth and reproduction rates than other types of livestock and high feed requirements, beef cattle are among the least efficient producers of protein in modern diets. A 1,200-pound cow or steer typically produces about 490 pounds of boneless trimmed beef, only around 40 percent of its live weight. With its methane-belching ruminant digestive system and role in tropical deforestation, beef also has the largest carbon footprint. Despite its heavy toll on the planet, global demand for beef and other ruminants keeps growing, rising 25 percent between 2000 and 2019.
