Sustainability in the meat supply chain is everybody’s business, and everybody needs to do their part to move the industry forward in this regard. Coordinating the efforts of every link in the domestic poultry chain, from feed to final sale, is the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Poultry & Eggs. This group organizes the discussions — and ultimately the agreements — among more than 100 members, ranging from the Environmental Defense Fund to Cargill to Jollibee.

Executive director Ryan Bennett joined MeatingPod to update us on what’s been accomplished — and what’s next.

Regenerative agriculture is more than just a lot of syllables. The term is tossed around more and more often along the food supply chain, but what does that really look like on a day to day basis, for food producers and processors.

Diestel Family Ranch in Northern California is an enthusiastic proponent of regenerative agriculture. Heidi Diestel joins us today on MeatingPod to discuss what the company actually does that is regenerative, and how that affects the business, and the quality of the turkey products that carry the Diestel brand.

It’s the time of year when turkey is, understandably, top of mind, but of course turkey protein has worked its way into our year-round diets, in the form of turkey burgers, deli slices, turkey bacon and the like. So the issues facing the turkey supply chain are front and center for consumers every day often in the form of higher prices.

Dr. Lindy Froebel is the still-new senior vice president of science and policy for the National Turkey Federation. She joins MeatingPod today to parse the challenges facing the turkey industry, and explain what the Federation is doing to help growers and processors meet them.

Domestic beef prices are certainly a headache, but the U.S. beef supply chain is losing ground in global markets, as well. The culprits are a combination of supply-and-demand economics — and politics. And in the 21st century, other countries, like Brazil, that have nurtured their meat industries over time are stepping up to fill the void in a way they never did before.

Today on MeatingPod, we parse out the challenges that are present and the opportunities that are coming for the U.S. beef industry with Frank Fuhrig, enterprise editor with Meatingplace. His long-time coverage of agricultural and international affairs brings a rare perspective to the role of trade in this business.

Planning ahead properly for major capital investments faces many barriers, from day-to-day challenges that make it hard to focus on long-term horizons to the shiny new technologies rolled out at trade shows that promise labor savings and soaring profitability.

Proper long-term planning needs focused attention, air and space, and the right people in the room from the beginning, Judson Armentrout says. The founder and principal consultant with Building Block Solutions has guided many protein processors through years-long capital investment plans. Judson has worked on both sides of these projects, in production and in retail, and he knows how to take a project into the future, even when that future is unclear.

Armentrout provides us with his guidelines on this week’s episode of MeatingPod.

If chicken processors feel like the rope in a game of tug-of-war, they have good reason. Prices are historically high, but that may not last. Trade disputes are a big unknown for poultry exports. And colder weather in the Northern Hemisphere already is ushering in new outbreaks of HPAI across the globe.

Nan-Dirk Mulder is a senior global specialist for animal protein with RaboResearch in the Netherlands. He also is the author of its quarterly outlook for the poultry industry. Nan-Dirk doesn’t have a crystal ball into exactly what will happen in poultry in 2026, but he has some well-informed predictions, and he shares them in this episode of MeatingPod.

As storied as the history of the meat business is in the United States, the “old ways” are falling by the wayside now. They are being replaced by technology and training. Meanwhile, the meat industry’s workforce also is seeing upheaval. While traditional sources of labor are coming under fire, processors also are having trouble finding a new breed of employee, who can manage the electronics that are filling up the space in the once-humble meat plant.

In this episode of MeatingPod, the editors of Meatingplace engage in a roundtable discussion of these trends, and their implications for processing companies. Joining us today are Tom Johnston, editor in chief, managing editor Peter Ricci, and Chris Moore, our news editor.

The economics of the turkey market are changing. HPAI and other diseases have tightened supplies but prices are down. And decades-long annual sales cycles seem to have been permanently altered by the pandemic’s effects on social gatherings — but ground product isn’t picking up the slack.

As the holiday season, and holiday meals, draw closer on the calendar, Mark Jordan of LEAP Analytics joins MeatingPod to help make sense of this fast-changing market, with an eye on what to expect in 2026.