A joint effort by federal and state governments to help small meatpacking plants increase their capacity is encountering some bumps.
Earlier this year, COVID-19 outbreaks as large slaughterhouses and meat processing plants led to temporary closures. That resulted in higher prices and meat shortages at grocery stores, which in turn led some consumers to look at local meat from small, mostly rural processing plants.
While that demand was good for the industry, it also overtaxed the small processors’ ability to keep up.