What is processed meat?
Despite the fashion of using "processed" as if it is a derogatory term, and processed foods are dangerous, almost all foods are processed in some way(s).   Most of us, for example, do not chew wheat berries directly off the stalks, but prefer them threshed, hulled, ground into flour, and then baked into breads or other foods.  What is that, if not processing?

Of course, cooking itself is a form of processing, since most of us no longer eat our meat raw from the carcass.

There are a number of common ways that meat is processed, after being butchered, some of which are more extreme than others.  Some foods have several of these processes applied.  Among the more common are:


Cooking
Grinding (as in hamburger, and many sausages)
Curing with salt or other curing agents (as in bacon)
Canning (as in the infamous Spam, or Vienna sausages)
Drying or dehydrating (jerky)
Pickling (pickled pigs feet)
Smoking (which is often combined with curing, cooking, or drying, such as Virginia ham)
Freezing
Injection of brine or other flavorings or enhancements (many ham products)


I don't think there is any universal measure by which you can consider processing good or bad.  You have to consider each within the context of the particular food product, and its outcome.