Animals farmed investigates: the huge global trade in live animals

This week we'll be taking a closer look at the reality and risks of the huge industry supplying the growing demand for meatOver the next week the Guardian's Animals farmed series will focus on the global live animal export trade, which, despite welfare and disease concerns, has been growing at a pretty steady pace over the past 50 years.It's not an industry that most of us think about very often, though meat consumption has become one of the big discussions of our time. But most of us struggle to grasp the full complexity of the modern farming system, where an animal may be born in one location before being transported to another for most of its life, to a third - if it is a beef cow - for fattening, and at last to a final place for its death. Continue reading...