Cheap meat Cheap meat Cheap meat is a term used to describe relatively inexpensive meat (e.g. fatty cuts of lamb or mutton) or to indicate that the consumer price of meat does not include the overall costs of industrial meat production. The term cheap meat is then either related to subsidies, to hidden costs or to non-material costs ("moral cost") of meat production. Non-material costs can be related to issues such as animal welfare (e.g. treatment of animals, over-breeding). The term is used by critics of the meat industry. The meat industry is subsidized with billions of dollars by governments who support
Meat or sausages, or used in loose form (as in "sloppy joe" or Bolognese sauce). Some meat is cured by smoking, which is the process of flavoring, cooking, or preserving food by exposing it to the smoke from burning or smoldering plant materials, most often wood. In Europe, alder is the traditional smoking wood, but oak is more often used now, and beech to a lesser extent. In North America, hickory, mesquite, oak, pecan, alder, maple, and fruit-tree woods are commonly used for smoking. Meat can also be cured by pickling, preserving in salt or brine (see salted meat and other