On the "new" list today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23251734 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23251734 https://www.hcn.org/articles/covid-19-will

On the "new" list today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23251734 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23251734 https://www.hcn.org/articles/covid-19-will-covid-19-help-save-small-slaughterhouses https://www.hcn.org/articles/covid-19-will-covid-19-help-sav... "Will COVID-19 help save small slaughterhouses?" > As laborers for the Big Four meatpackers fall ill, small slaughterhouses see unprecedented demand. > From 1990 to 2016, the U.S. lost more than 1800 livestock slaughterhouses, 40% of the industry. As small slaughterhouses closed, the so-called “Big Four” meatpacking companies — Tyson, Cargill, JBS and National Beef — came to dominate the industry. Today, these four companies process more than 80% of beef in the U.S. There it is: optimization of one metric to the detriment of others, resulting in overfitting, and exposed during a pandemic to rare-but-predictable crisis, it falls over.