A quick disclosure - I work at MSU and did my graduate education at U-M, so this response pretty Midwest focused, and includes names I know as a privilege of my job and schooling. There are many great researchers out there pursuing aspects of agroecology/sustainability in the food production system that I am not mentioning, though they certainly have had significant contributions to the field.
Before you start to try to reinvent the wheel, there is a strong and ongoing literature around sustainable, agriculture, and a growing one on meat production. As far as ecologists in the field, try starting with the authors of Agroecology textbooks and the new International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development [IAASTD] report: Steve Gliessman, John Vandermeer, Peter Rosset, Ivette Perfecto to name just a few. Many scientists that might be "classified" as agricultural researchers are strongly utilizing ecological knowledge - check out the long-term ecological research site in agriculture at MSU with many well-known researchers like Sieg Snapp and Phil Robertson. Look to the land-grant institutions with strong agroecologically-based programs for more about sustainable meat production. Here at MSU, we have cattle grazing ecologist Satiago Utsumi. There are also many social science researchers looking at ag technology adoption, political ecology, and the renewing of ancestral skills... that is another set of literature that I am less familiar with, but can mention recent influential public economics writer Raj Patel and political ecologist Jahi Chappell. Most traditional animal science departments are wary of ecological-based production methods, opting in the past to focus on feed efficiency and disease management, but there is a growing willingness to consider many alternatives. Remember that research funding is tighter than ever, so industry groups influence what can be researched in academia. Yet, the majority of cattle producers are still small - it's not until later consolidation in the production model that most cattle could be considered "industrial". Anyone familiar with sustainable poultry, pork and other meat production, please chime in. In addition to the above mentions, Iowa State, University of Wisconsin-Madison, UC Santa Cruz, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Cornell, and many other institutions have strong faculty in agroecology... you just need to do a little searching and you'll find a surprising amount of ecologists working in the agricultural venue - a few hundred are registered in the ESA Agroecology section. However, I would say that people researching more sustainable meat production are underrepresented and this field presents a lot of potential with both consumer preferences and the price of fuel in flux. It deserves to be said that in places where grazing animals is one of the sole sources of local food for humans (e.g. areas of Africa), the approach to and importance of both raising and sustaining animals is very different. There are many reports recently out that calculate the toll of raising meat that appear to be much more objective than interest-group led efforts. FAO's recent "Livestock in a changing landscape" may be of interest. Julie Cotton Academic Specialist Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Michigan State University
