Owner Ryan MacKay checks on his cows in the pasture as they graze at Lilac Hedge Farm, a local meat farm in Hudson, MA that raises beed, pork, lamb and poultry using natural, sustainable methods. (Photo by John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Boston Globe via Getty Images
The carnivore diet is evolving far beyond its early reputation as a niche online trend centered on steak, eggs, and butter. What was once viewed as an extreme eating fad has grown into a rapidly expanding wellness market, with consumers increasingly on the lookout for meat products marketed as regenerative, ethically sourced, and environmentally conscious.
The all-meat, or predominantly meat-based, diet—sometimes referred to by followers as the ‘ancestral diet’—has built a large online following in recent years.
According to trend-tracking platform Glimpse, search interest increased 94% between 2024 and 2025, reaching an estimated 1.8 million monthly searches by February 2025. On Instagram, the hashtag #carnivore appears in roughly 2.6 million posts.
The commercial ecosystem surrounding the diet has also exploded. Companies selling organ supplements, freeze-dried meat snacks, and subscription meat boxes are reporting strong growth as consumers increasingly seek products tied not only to protein and performance but also to animal welfare, regenerative agriculture, and supply-chain transparency.
Chris Ricci, chief executive of Ancestral Supplements, a company that sells freeze-dried organ meat capsules sourced from grass-fed, regeneratively raised animals, has watched that shift closely.
Ricci previously led Eat Well Nashville, a meal delivery company later acquired by Vibrant Meals, served as Partner and Head of Operations at Ancient Nutrition, and co-founded Nellamoon, a sustainable consumer goods company.
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“As consumers increasingly seek products tied to regenerative agriculture, animal welfare, and supply-chain transparency, companies in the space are repositioning themselves around ethical sourcing as much as nutrition,” he says.
“Many businesses such as ours are working closely with regenerative farms and promoting free-range livestock systems, natural feed practices, and reduced chemical use across the supply chain.”
That shift in ethos is reshaping the broader meat industry.
In late 2025, officials at Sustainable Beef announced a partnership with Sydney-based AI company Lumachain to deploy a real-time, computer-vision animal welfare monitoring system at its new Nebraska processing plant, replacing traditional random manual audits with AI-driven monitoring designed to verify welfare-critical events.
Designed around Meat Institute Animal Welfare Guidelines, Lumachain’s AI-powered platform helps meat processing plants improve animal welfare oversight.
Lumachain
Research suggests the emphasis on ethics is resonating with consumers. One study from the UK’s Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board found that 84% of shoppers consider animal welfare an important factor in purchasing decisions, second only to freshness.
As the carnivore diet evolves into a lucrative global industry, many of its fastest-growing and most profitable brands are building their businesses around ethical sourcing and regenerative agriculture.
The global regenerative meat market alone is projected to surpass US$5.2 billion by 2034, according to Polaris Market Research, a sign of growing investor and consumer interest in meat produced through more sustainable systems.
“Looking at the sector, I’m seeing that the companies posting the strongest growth are the ones leaning hardest into ethical sourcing, regenerative farming, and supply-chain transparency,” says Ricci.
Companies like The Ethical Butcher, an e-commerce business selling ethically sourced meat from British farms, have attracted significant investment and built strong repeat-customer bases by capitalizing on growing demand for traceable, ethically sourced meat.
Farshad Kazemian, founder and CEO of The Ethical Butcher, says rising public awareness around food systems is helping drive that demand.
“There is undoubtedly a growing appetite for ethically sourced meat,” Kazemian said in a recent interview. “This shift is driven by a deeper awareness of where food comes from, particularly as consumers are realizing the importance of soil health and animal welfare.”
Kazemian says he founded the company to demonstrate that regenerative meat production can support British farming, improve transparency and help restore ecosystems.
“We’ve built a brand and business that places nature, nutrition and transparency at the centre," Kazemian says. “Our supply chain supports pioneering British farmers who practise rotational grazing, restore soil health, and raise animals in harmony with the land. Crucially, our company is now majority farmer-owned, ensuring the people doing the regenerative work share in the long-term value we’re creating."
Fowlescombe Farm, one of the farms supplying meat to The Ethical Butcher, describes itself as a regenerative farm rooted in traditional farming practices "where everything we grow, raise and tend to is guided by a simple principle to leave the land better than we found it."
Fowlescombe Farm
Growing consumer fascination with regenerative farming and ancestral food traditions is extending beyond premium cuts of meat and is increasingly reshaping an entire wellness economy, where organ meats once discarded or overlooked are now being repackaged as some of the industry’s most sought-after health products.
Some of the strongest commercial growth within the space is taking place in organ-based supplements, including freeze-dried beef liver, heart, kidney and bone marrow products sourced from regenerative farms with an emphasis on animal welfare and marketed as concentrated sources of vitamins and minerals.
Chris Ricci, Chief Executive Officer of Ancestral Supplements
Jana Schuessler
“What was once a niche market for nutrient-dense animal products has rapidly expanded into a booming global wellness industry with significant room for expansion,” Ricci says.
The growth of organ supplements has paralleled a broader resurgence in demand for offal, or organ meats, alongside the rising popularity of beef tallow as a seed-oil alternative and the emergence of the 'Make America Healthy Again’ movement led by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which is pushing for major changes to US dietary guidelines and food industry practices.
Much of the category’s appeal is tied to 'nose-to-tail’ eating, an ancestral diet philosophy that encourages consuming the entire animal rather than only muscle meat. Supporters argue organ meats are among the most nutrient-dense whole foods available, while supplements provide consumers with a more convenient alternative to sourcing and preparing fresh organs directly.
Ancestral Supplements has emerged as one of the category’s dominant brands. Under Ricci’s leadership, the company reportedly expanded from roughly US$40 million in revenue through a period of decline to more than US$90 million within the past three years. The company says it has reached more than four million customers globally.
Ricci says his interest in the company’s broader philosophy was shaped in part by personal experience and dissatisfaction with highly processed modern food systems.
After his mother was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer, Ricci began researching nutrition, wellness and alternative health approaches, eventually developing a strong interest in ancestral diets, nutrient-dense animal foods and sourcing practices tied to regenerative farming.
“Stories of restored energy, improved health, and renewed hope are not abstract metrics,” Ricci says of customer feedback. “They are the driving force behind the mission.”
Ancestral Supplements says its products are sourced from pasture-raised, grass-fed animals supplied by family ranchers in New Zealand and Australia. The company also says its supplements are produced in small batches and harvested only as needed in an effort to reduce waste.
The company’s positioning reflects a broader shift taking place across the carnivore and wellness industries, where sourcing transparency, animal welfare and production practices are increasingly central to how brands market themselves.
Ancestral Supplements says its organ-based supplements come from grass-fed, pasture-raised animals sourced through family-run ranches in New Zealand and Australia that follow high animal welfare practices.
Ancestral Supplements
Consumers’ willingness to pay premium prices for ethically sourced meat reflects a broader shift in how it is being marketed and perceived. For many carnivore diet followers, meat is no longer viewed simply as a commodity, but as a functional wellness product tied to nutrition, sourcing and lifestyle identity.
Research also suggests that demand for higher welfare meat is also extending well beyond niche wellness communities. A 2025 study by researchers at the University of Reading found strong public support for tougher farm animal welfare protections, with 85% of respondents saying there is a moral duty to protect animal welfare and 86% supporting stronger regulation.
As the market expands, companies are rapidly diversifying beyond steaks and ground beef into a broader ecosystem of 'carnivore-friendly’ products marketed as premium lifestyle goods. These include ready-to-drink bone broth, raw dairy, colostrum powder, bone marrow and collagen supplements, liver crisps, ghee, biltong, and cooking fats such as lard and duck fat.
Specialty retailers and upscale health stores are also increasingly selling raw animal-based smoothies made with ingredients such as kefir, egg yolks, raw milk and organ supplements.
Subscription meat services have also become a major growth category, benefiting from growing consumer skepticism around conventional grocery store supply chains and increasing demand for traceable, higher-quality meat products.
Companies offering direct-to-consumer meat delivery often market their products as fresher and more transparent than supermarket meat, emphasizing direct relationships with smaller farms that prioritize animal welfare, sustainability and production quality.
Campo Grande, founded in 2021, specializes in ethically raised Ibérico pork and Spanish meats sourced from family-run farms using sustainable production methods. The company also sells sustainably sourced European seafood and grass-fed Vaca Vieja beef through direct-to-consumer subscription boxes.
Its charcuterie line launched in Whole Foods Market stores in 2025 and was featured in The New York Times holiday gift guide the same year. According to Crunchbase data, the company recently surpassed 51,000 monthly website visits, representing more than 13% monthly growth.
Campo Grande says its products are shipped using compostable insulation as part of broader sustainability efforts tied to its subscription business model.
Campo Grande's Ibérico pork is sourced from pigs native to Spain’s Iberian Peninsula, where production standards are tightly regulated. The company says its pigs are raised free-range and fed a diet centered largely on acorns, along with natural grasses and grains.
Campo Grande
The rapid growth of the carnivore economy comes even as animal agriculture remains a major contributor to agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, particularly through methane released by cattle and land-use pressures tied to feed production and deforestation.
Supporters of regenerative and ethically sourced meat, however, argue that the environmental impact of meat production depends heavily on how animals are raised and how farms are managed.
Ricci says practices such as rotational grazing, pasture restoration, lower-intensity farming systems and improving overall animal health can help reduce certain environmental pressures while supporting soil quality, biodiversity and animal welfare.
Emerging research is also beginning to support that argument, suggesting that healthier livestock may produce lower emissions intensity by living longer, growing more efficiently and requiring fewer resource inputs, while also improving farm productivity.
As the carnivore economy grows, some of its most commercially successful players are increasingly aligning with rising market demand for ethical, regenerative and minimally processed products.
“We’ve seen consumers become much more conscious not just about what they eat, but how that animal was raised and the impact that system has on the environment,” Ricci says.
“There’s a growing understanding that regenerative farming and healthier animals can be part of a more sustainable food system while also producing higher-quality nutrition.”
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