Encounter - Meat

Television (Full Length) – 1976

From the farm to the factory, this episode of Encounter takes a closer look at the meat industry in 1970s Aotearoa. Pigs and beef are the subject here, with no crumb of cow wasted in the process of preparing meat for human consumption. It could be described as the original nose-to-tail eating; the meat is cut and packed, the pelt washed and dried, and even some parts of the offal are used in making sporting equipment and pharmaceuticals. Interviews touch on some of the challenges of the industry, and explore differing beliefs on the use of meat. Some scenes may not be suitable for the easily queasy!

There are just over 700 pigs in here at the moment, and we hope to be able to build that up to a thousand. The economics of this do appear to be particularly good because we have so many pigs in a reasonably small building. With three levels of pigs, it's like high rise buildings in cities.
– A farmer packs his pigs into his shed, early in this documentary