Meat is back in style. Sales topped a record-high $104 billion in 2024, during which Americans ate an estimated 7% more meat than before the pandemic, according to industry data.

But there’s new thinking about it.

McDonald’s recently announced a seven-year, $200 million investment in regenerative cattle farming to nourish grasslands and ensure supply chain resilience. Also making headlines was a daring bovine escape from an Arizona slaughterhouse. “Mootilda” was rescued from a certain fate by animal sanctuary owner Aimee Takaha with the help of a Facebook crowd fund. What do these two events have in common?

Both attest to the growing awareness that it matters how we raise our meat and, more generally, our food — for the land, the animals and our health.

Regenerative farming nurtures he

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