Butchered with Care, Not Speed

Friends,

I just left a room full of the hardest-working people in American agriculture - small meat processors - and I've never been more pissed off about what Big Ag is doing to them.

Here's what's got my blood boiling: Just 4 companies control 85% of the beef industry. We've lost over 400 cattle processing plants since 1991. The largest 19 plants produce 80% of all U.S. beef. Some industrial plants are "harvesting" 16 pigs every single minute - that's not farming, that's an assembly line treating animals like widgets. Meanwhile, 92% of all pork now comes from facilities processing over a million hogs annually. 

The small processors I met at the American Association of Meat Processors conference in Kansas City - folks like our partners at Cypress Valley - they're a different breed.

They might process 100-200 animals in a whole week, taking time to ensure quality and dignity. But that care costs more: $500-600 more per head of beef, $200-300 per pig, and $5-6 per chicken compared to industrial processing.

Here's what really scares me: When Tyson's single Holcomb, Kansas plant caught fire, it knocked out 6% of America's entire beef capacity. One plant! Just 12 plants produce nearly half our beef. Just 14 plants produce 60% of our pork. That's not resilience - that's insanity.

One processor stood up and shared their actual financials - laid it all bare. These aren't fat cats - they're community pillars barely breaking even, fighting to keep their doors open.

Without these small processors, farmers like us don't exist. Period. We can raise the healthiest, happiest animals on earth, but without someone to process them with care, we're stuck.

Step inside our butcher shop to see how pasture-raised pork becomes ethical meat crafted with care, processed with respect, and always transparent. 

But here's why I left that conference fired up instead of defeated: YOU. Every time you buy directly from small farmers like us, you're keeping these small processors alive. Every dollar you spend is a vote for which system survives. You're proving that Americans still value craftsmanship over speed, real nutrition over cheap shortcuts. Those processors I met? They're surviving because of customers like you who refuse to accept that 16 pigs a minute is normal.

You're not just buying dinner - you're rebuilding American agriculture one meal at a time. And together, we're going to win this fight.

Your farmer (and small processor advocate), 
Cody