Outbreaks of COVID-19 at Canada’s two largest meat-packing plants have reverberated across the beef industry, causing a backlog of roughly 100,000 cattle, all of them now stuck on farms and costing ranchers hundreds of millions in extra feed and lost revenues.
The backlog has also renewed concerns about the lack of diversification in Canadian beef processing, which some say is due to the realities of North American supply chains, and perhaps a long-ago regulation made to stop the spread of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), better known as mad cow disease.
The vast majority of all Canadian-raised cattle are slaughtered and processed by a few massive plants owned by two multinationals: Cargill Inc. and JBS SA.
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