With more than 500,000 employees nationwide, the U.S. meat industry includes 835 federallyinspected livestock slaughter plants and 370 poultry slaughter plants. On an annual basis, meat packers transform 33.6 million head of cattle, 587,000 calves, 129.9 million hogs, and 2.23 million sheep and lambs into more than 55 billion pounds of beef, pork, lamb and veal. And, poultry processors transform 9.34 billion chickens and 227.6 million turkeys into more than 50 billion pounds of chicken and turkey products.

With total annual sales of $152.5 billion, the meat packing and processing industry in the U.S. feeds a country that consumes more beef than any other country in the world, or roughly 58 pounds per person on an annual basis. U.S. consumption of poultry is roughly 112.5 pounds per capita, while pork consumption is about 50 pounds per capita.