Cheap meat is a term used to describe relatively inexpensive meat (e.g. fatty cuts of lamb or mutton) or to indicate that the consumer price of meat does not include the overall costs of industrial meat production. The term cheap meat is then either related to subsidies, to hidden costs or to non-material costs ("moral cost") of meat production. Non-material costs can be related to issues such as animal welfare (e.g. treatment of animals, over-breeding). The term is used by critics of the meat industry.
The meat industry is subsidized with billions of dollars by governments who support their meat industries. The OECD estimates the total "producer support" in OECD countries for 2012 as follows: 18bn USD for beef and veal, 7.3bn USD for pigmeat, 6.5bn USD for poultry and 1bn USD for sheepmeat (provisional numbers). Hidden costs of meat production can be related to the environmental impact of meat production and to the effect on human health (such as resistant antibiotics).