Ever heard of JBS Swift. You badly need to.

Kay said he has never seen anything that even comes close to approaching this in his 21 years of watching the industry. National and Smithfield Beef Group are the fourth and fifth largest U.S. beef processors; JBS-Swift is No. 3.

"This is breath-taking," Kay said Tuesday evening. ...

" ... it is acquiring the two beef companies below it that have both been successful in recent years in different ways. It's timing could not be better," he said. The weak U.S. dollar versus the strong Brazilian real makes the acquisitions more financially attractive, Kay added.

...  Wesley Batista, CEO of JBS USA Inc., in the press release from National Beef, said "we are thrilled to be able to have National Beef become part of our North American beef processing operations," noting that company reputation for efficiency is recognized worldwide.

Steven Koontz is an agricultural economist at Colorado State University who closely follows the industry. ... Koontz said there are not enough cattle presently to supply all the packing plants, so JBS could close some plants.

For those unfamiliar with what is happening to the independent cattleman - the grass-fed beef cattlemen that are needed if we are actually going to have sustainable agriculture - they are being crushed by this as well as by NAIS.  

They won't even be able to get their cattle into this monopolized system to be auctioned and sold.  Then, on the NAIS side, besides the constitutional violations of privacy and the overwhelming and expensive bureaucratic morass that is destructive enough in general, they can be easily eliminated, one by one, and at will by the USDA (which works for their competition, the big meat packers and Monsanto) at the drop of even a single infraction - which start at $250,000 and jump to $500,000.