A tax on red meat is imminent, researchers say

For years, analysts have been working to find financial tools for curbing certain behaviors.
"Everybody has to pay for climate damages, and many people in the states have to pay privately for health care. So it would make much more sense if they saw those costs in the prices of foods that are really related to those impacts," Marco Springmann says.
Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images

Small, local meat producers see uptick in demand

May 19, 2020
Local producers are seeing an increase in online and over-the-counter sales.
Some small- to mid-sized ranchers are seeing the demand for local meat spike.
Laura Palmisano

U.S. meat is increasingly being shipped to China, Reuters analysis shows

Pork supplies are down about 40% since mid-March in the U.S., but pork shipments to China have quadrupled in that same time period.
Smithfield, which is now owned by a Chinese firm, was the biggest exporter of American pork to China in the first quarter.
Kerem Yucel/AFP via Getty Images

COVID-19 exposes U.S. meat supply's dependence on a few large plants

May 6, 2020
Shutting down just one or two of those plants can take out 10% of the meat supply.
At a New Seasons Market grocery store in Portland, Oregon, customers’ meat purchases are now limited to preserve adequate supplies.
Mitchell Hartman/Marketplace

Meat processing plants are COVID-19 hot spots. What does that mean for U.S. food supply?

Tyson Foods is warning that millions of pounds of meat could "disappear."
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

With some meatpacking plant closures due to COVID-19, a look at their role in the food supply chain

Apr 20, 2020
The industry has consolidated over the last decades, so there are fewer plants, that handle a lot more meat.
Stacey Vanek-Smith/Marketplace

For public good, not for profit.

Among essential operations during COVID-19: livestock auctions

Apr 14, 2020
Those auctions are an important part of the rural economy and the food chain. The people working the auctions are taking safety precautions.
Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images
Curtis Stone (righ) opened Gwen, his Hollywood butcher shop and restaurant, alongside older brother Luke Stone (left).
Jessica Sun/Marketplace

How Latinos are transforming the economy of a small rural town

Sep 8, 2017
Immigrants drawn by jobs at the local meat-packing plant are making their mark in business and politics.
Norma Corral, an immigrant from Mexico, worked at Cargill's beef processing plant in Schuyler, Nebraska for a decade before opening up her business, Paleteria Oasis, in downtown.
Daisy Palacios/Marketplace