Dive Brief:

• The two largest meat-industry groups in the United States have agreed to merge, effective January 2015. 
• The North American Meat Association (NAMA) voted last month to merge with the American Meat Institute (AMI). The AMI board backed that plan in a vote earlier this month. Reports today indicate the general membership of AMI voted yesterday to approve the merger.
• The merger is touted as an opportunity for the meat industry, which has faced a barrage of public-relations problems in recent years, to adopt a "consumer oriented" focus. 

Dive Insight:

As the meat industry has come under fire for its treatment of animals, its role in environmental problems, and debates over GMOs, the industry's trade associations have responded by merging.

NAMA is the product of a merger in 2012 of the North American Meat Processors Association (NAMP) and the National Meat Association (NMA). The NMA was the result of a merger in 1996 of the Western States and Mountain/Plains meat associations. Now NAMA is merging with the giant of the meat business -- the century-old AMI.

The spin on the merger is that it will allow the industry to speak with "one voice" to consumers. That's a good idea, but it's a bit unclear what such voice might say to consumers. The meat industry, like the food industry and consumers in general, is split into some warring camps: GMO vs. GMO-free, grass-fed vs. antibiotics, free-range vs. CAFOs, etc. 

If the meat industry -- or anyone else, for that matter -- can find a way to speak with one voice to the concerns of all those people, we're willing to listen.