The meat-processing industry, as evidenced by the Top 100 Report, continues to be both extremely stable in some aspects and wildly erratic in others. The companies at the top of the list — Tyson Foods, JBS USA, Cargill Meat Solutions and Smithfield Foods — did not break rank from last year.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, the unthinkable has happened — or maybe not so unthinkable, if you’re a particularly cynical person. Activists and the misguided, misinformed public have won a battle that they had no business winning.