The theme of this year's Canadian Society of Animal Science Symposium was chosen in conjunction with the Agricultural Institute of Canada who selected "Sustainable Food Systems" as the theme for their Conference. In discussing the future of meat as a sustainable food system, three areas have been selected for attention: (1) grading systems and their effectiveness in identifying superior carcasses; (2) the challenges in improving meat quality and how improvements with respect to growth rate in the areas of genetics, nutrition and management have affected meat quality; (3) the future consumption patterns of meat and how these will be affected by other changes that are taking place regarding our eating habits.In setting the background for these papers, I will briefly mention a few of the important trends that have taken place in Canada with respect to meat consumption over the past 17 years. I will not attempt to interpret these changes in this introduction. Total meat consumption, excluding fish (which averages about 2 kg/yr/capita) has increased from 76.2 kg per capita per year in 1963 to a high of 99.6 kg in 1976 with the value for 1980 being 97.4 kg. Beef consumption has followed quite closely the pattern of total meat consumption with the per capita consumption being 33.7 kg in 1963, rising to 51.4 kg in 1976, but then declining much more sharply than did total meat consumption to a figure of 39.9 kg in 1980. This drop in consumption of beef has been almost completely compensated for by increases in pork and broiler chicken consumption. Pork consumption was 23.0 kg per capita in 1963 and it changed very little, except for fluctuations, up until 1976 when the figure was 25.2 kg but, since then, it has increased rapidly to an all-time high figure of 32.4 kg in 1980 which may be a cycle peak, a new trend or a combination of both. Over the years, broiler chicken meat has seen the greatest increase in consumption going from 8.9 kg per capita in 1963 to 14.6 kg in 1976 and for 1980, the figure is 17.3 kg. Veal consumption has declined from about 3 kg per capita in 1963 to 1.4 kg in 1980 with mutton and lamb showing a similar decline from just under 2 kg in 1963 to 0.8 kg in 1980. Turkey consumption has held relatively steady at about 4 kg per capita while fowl consumption showed a decline from about 2 kg in 1963 to 1.3 kg in 1980.