Related link(s): http://www.richmondfed.org/publications/research/region_focus/2009/spring/economic_history_weblinks.cfm

The goal of the National Animal Identification System is to trace the origin of a diseased animal within 48 hours. But would an optional, voluntary system accomplish this goal without unduly hurting small farmers?

A new meat industry is rapidly emerging in the United States, as food retailers, meat processors, and farms and ranches coalesce into fewer and larger businesses. The industry’s rapid consolidation in recent years has triggered alarms that the industry’s new giants in retailing and...

Throughout the 1990s, the pork industry has been at the forefront of a revolution in the structure of the U.S. food and agricultural sector. In particular, the pork industry has been rapidly moving away from its traditional structure built on hundreds of thousands of small farms selling hogs at...