Meat and Poultry Dialogue
Outdated meat and poultry food-safety laws and regulations threaten the U.S. food supply and public health. In 2014, players across the sector rallied together to propose changes to the status quo.
Focus Areas
Food Systems
According to a 2011 study, contaminated beef, pork, and poultry sicken 2.8 million Americans every year, costing over $5.7 billion annually. In an effort to bring food safety laws and regulatory standards for U.S. meat and poultry into the 21st century, in 2014 The Pew Charitable Trusts and Cargill launched an effort to reconcile widely varying views on updating them. Guided by a small, cross-sector planning team, Meridian led stakeholders and experts from across the meat and poultry industry to reach consensus on policy recommendations.
Since the 1990s, foodborne pathogens in meat and poultry have caused disease outbreaks, serious illness, and numerous deaths. Many blame outdated and inflexible policy: laws governing meat and poultry production and inspection standards were enacted by Congress in 1906 and 1957, respectively. They were designed for a different era of agriculture — a time when visual inspection of carcasses was the best monitoring technology available.
Pew and Cargill saw an increasingly critical need for policy changes in meat and poultry oversight. They believed that a multi-stakeholder dialogue process would most effectively kick-start modernization, but they also knew that food safety conversations provoke contention and high emotion. They needed someone who would establish an efficient dialogue process, ensuring that all voices were heard—and that disagreements were managed fairly.
Pew selected Meridian based on our track record overseeing similarly complex and emotionally charged policy negotiations. After completing an initial assessment, we led the Meat and Poultry Dialogue Group to consensus; they formally released a set of Recommendations to Modernize the Meat and Poultry Oversight System in the United States in 2017.
Project Team
Learn more about the team that led the Meat and Poultry Dialogue project.