PHOTO-REPORT: The Making Of The Meat We Eat [WARNING: Viewer Discretion Is Advised, 18+]

Santarem, Brazil — Those who buy meat at a supermarket might think it grows on trees and at harvest time it gets placed in those little plastic containers they find on the shelves. The reality is a lot different though, as making the meat we eat is a messy business on industrial scale.

If your primary image of cows is one of them running around in fields, you might want to avoid this gallery. Viewer discretion is advised.

Live cattle are seen at the Cargill Beef Processing Plant in Schuyler

A cow is prepared to be butchered at the slaughterhouse

Slaughtered cows are left to bleed out at the slaughterhouse

Employees butcher a cow at the slaughterhouse

A set of knifes are pictured at the Santacarnes slaughterhouse in Santarem

An employee prepares a cow to be butchered at the slaughterhouse in Santarem

Employees butcher cows at the slaughterhouse in Santarem

An employee handles the heads of butchered cows at the slaughterhouse

An employee processes a butchered cow at the slaughterhouse in Santarem

An employee pushes the carcasses of butchered cows into a refrigerated truck at Santacarnes slaughterhouse

Employees clean an empty processing room at the Santacarnes slaughterhouse in Santarem

An employee inspects chubs of ground beef at the Beef Processing Plant in Schuyler

Cargill employees trim beef at the Cargill Beef Processing Plant in Schuyler

An employee trims beef at the Beef Processing Plant

An employee repairs equipment in the grading room while surrounded by hanging sides of beef at the Cargill Beef Processing Plant

Cargill employees sever the heads of cattle at the Cargill Beef Processing Plant in Schuyler

An employee saws a cow’s body in half at the Cargill Beef Processing Plant in Schuyler

Boxes of beef are processed at the Beef Processing Plant

A block of finely textured beef rolls down a conveyor belt at the Beef Processing Plant

Finely textured beef is seen at the Cargill Beef Processing Plant in Schuyler

An Emplyee monitors various processes at the Beef Processing Plant

Source: Totally Cool Pix