[bshipp]

What seems to be missing in the article is a reference to the Jack-in-the-box ecoli outbreak, BSE, and a number of other food safety outbreaks that dramatically impacted small abattoirs.

I watched a friend close up his small butcher shop when he simply lost the will to meet all of the new and changing requirements that were mandated for him to stay in business.

I'm not saying this was unwarranted, but those smaller slaughterhouses provided competition to the larger ones that kept price in lockstep with demand.

With most of those gone, the remaining large players are able to set their prices to maximize their marginal revenue and not at marginal cost.