‘A dying art’: With butchers disappearing, high schools look to step in

LEWISTOWN — Slaughterhouses and butchers used to be scattered throughout the United States, numbering about 10,000 in 1967.

Only about 3,000 remain and about 85% of the American meatpacking industry is controlled by four companies: JBS, Tyson Foods, Cargill and Smithfield. The other 20% of that market share is held in part by small and very small meat producers scattered across the country, including some in Montana.

About half of small and medium meat processors have disappeared in the last 20 years, and a decades long University of Illinois study found the average length of a meat processing business surviving was 9.7 years . Between inspections, startup costs and other factors, it’s not an easy business to get into or keep afloat.

This is true for much of the agricultural