In June, 2014, Slow Food USA and Slow Food Denver hosted the inaugural Slow Meat symposium in Denver, Colorado, USA. The theme was "Better Meat, Less Meat". This movement is about promoting smaller-scaled farmers to come up with innovative and created ways to mitigate the negative environmental effects of large scale industrial livestock farming for meat production. They can do this by returning to traditional methods of animal husbandry and using methods of farming and grazing that mimic nature and contribute to a more healthy environment. These methods can help combat climate change and actually create better and more flavorful meat. This movement is not only fueled by concerns for the environment but also by animal welfare concerns. Another concern is that the flow of capital in animal agriculture is contributing to the wealth gap because it is concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. The symposium looked at meat production in five stages from field to fork: land and water use; animal husbandry; process and distribution; marketing and retail; consumpution and child nutrition.
