In my career writing about the meat industry, I’ve had the opportunity to interview management in some of the largest processors in the nation, small state-inspected processors and many companies in between. While a multi-billion dollar corporation doesn’t have much in common with a small meat market, there are some similarities. Chief among them would be something at or near the top of their list of challenges: finding and retaining good employees.
The meat industry is not a career path for everybody. There can be temperature extremes and heavy lifting. There can be knives involved, and there can be that area in a processing facility where live animals become carcasses. It’s not a place for the squeamish or those who don’t want to do anything most exerting than changing a printer ink cartridge.