In June 2025, Johnsonville shut down its Momence, Illinois plant with no warning, just 15 minutes before 274 workers were told they were out of a job. The move sparked outrage, but it wasn’t a mistake or a one-time decision. It marked a turning point in a much larger trend. Across the country, meatpacking plants are disappearing, reshaping entire communities in the process. What’s driving these closures reveals a deeper, more permanent shift in the backbone of American industry.
Why Johnsonville’s Plant Closure Wasn’t Just About One Company
The Johnsonville plant closure hit Momence like a punch to the gut. The facility, once a cornerstone of the local economy, went silent in minutes. Many saw the move as ruthless, but the underlying issues are far more complex. This was just one chapter in a nationwide unraveling. In 2024 alone, 15 meatpacking plants shut their doors, the highest in over a decade. What’s happening isn’t just industrial, it’s structural.
A Pattern of Closures Is Reshaping the Meat Industry
From coast to coast, large meat processors are scaling back in ways that feel sudden, but have been years in the making. Industry giants like Tyson, Butterball, and Boar’s Head have shuttered plants in Arkansas, Virginia, and beyond. Combined, these closures have eliminated thousands of jobs. The reasons range from financial strain to food safety crises, but the takeaway is clear: the meat industry is pulling back, and fast.
Tyson, Butterball, and Others Join the Wave of Shutdowns
Take Tyson Foods as a leading example. In 2024, it shut down three facilities, axing more than 1,000 jobs. These were not failing businesses, they were under pressure to become more efficient. Boar’s Head’s closure followed a deadly listeria outbreak. Butterball cut nearly 200 positions. These moves point to a new normal: if a facility is aging, expensive to upgrade, or too small, companies are walking away rather than reinvesting.
Soaring Costs Are Forcing Meat Companies to Make Tough Calls
The economic calculus is brutal. Aging meat plants need costly updates to meet health, safety, and environmental standards. But companies face a steep rise in operational costs across the board. For many, the better option is to shift production to newer, leaner facilities elsewhere. Johnsonville’s decision to relocate work to Kansas and Wisconsin wasn’t just about profit, it was a bet on survival in a tightening industry.
Costs Are Rising Everywhere
Rising grain prices have sent feed costs soaring. Labor markets are tight, driving wages higher. Cattle prices surged by 13.5% year-over-year through April 2025. On top of that, wholesale beef prices jumped another 8.7%. This cocktail of rising expenses makes low-margin operations unsustainable. Especially for plants built decades ago, the choice often comes down to shut down or bleed money, many are choosing the former.
Small Towns Like Momence Are Left to Pick Up the Pieces
For small towns like Momence, the ripple effects are enormous. A population of just 3,000 can’t easily absorb the loss of hundreds of jobs. When Johnsonville pulled out, it wasn’t just a company leaving, it was a community lifeline being cut. Earlier in the year, a factory fire had already cost nearly 100 jobs. The meat plant shutdown compounded the blow, putting Momence in economic freefall.
One Closure Can Spiral Into Collapse
Economists refer to it as an “economic death spiral.” One major employer exits, then retail sales drop, families move away, school enrollment shrinks, and public services falter. The cycle feeds on itself. Research consistently shows that rural towns dependent on a single industry are most vulnerable. For every job lost at a plant, multiple others in the community often vanish too. In places like Momence, rebuilding is slow, and sometimes impossible.
Automation Is Quietly Taking Over
The rise of automation is another factor changing the equation. Today’s meat processors don’t just need skilled butchers, they need fewer of them. Companies are investing heavily in robotics that can mimic human hands with shocking precision. Machines now use sensors to detect fat, bone, and muscle, allowing them to cut meat flawlessly. Once costly and experimental, these technologies are now becoming the industry standard.
Fewer Workers, Faster Output
These new systems promise speed, consistency, and fewer worker injuries. They also reduce exposure to labor shortages and wage demands. The math is simple: build a new, fully automated facility and eliminate many of the costs associated with older plants and human labor. Instead of retrofitting, many companies are opting to start over. Automation isn’t just a feature of the future, it’s an unavoidable necessity for meat processors trying to stay afloat.
Plant-Based Foods Are Reshaping Demand
Beyond automation, changing consumer tastes are accelerating the shift. The plant-based food sector is no longer a niche, it’s a juggernaut. Globally, the market is projected to grow from $16.69 billion in 2024 to over $100 billion by 2033. In the U.S., demand is rising even faster, driven by concerns about health, the environment, and animal welfare. This isn’t just about vegans, it’s about mainstream dietary change.
Flexitarians Are Changing the Market
More Americans are becoming “flexitarians,” choosing to eat less meat without giving it up entirely. These shifts are shrinking traditional meat demand. For processors like Johnsonville, the options are stark: double down on conventional meat, or pivot to the growing world of alternatives. With plant-based products quickly gaining market share, the closures we’re seeing may be part of a broader repositioning, not just a retreat.
Supply Chains Still Haven’t Recovered
The meat supply chain has always been a delicate balancing act. But events like the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare its vulnerabilities. In 2020, virus outbreaks forced plant closures, leading to mass euthanization of livestock. Then in 2022, a freight rail labor dispute nearly froze food distribution. These crises exposed a truth the industry couldn’t ignore: the system was brittle, and highly dependent on just a few critical nodes.
Consolidation Creates Fragile Giants
Instead of reinforcing weak points, companies are leaning into consolidation. Bigger, faster, and more centralized facilities offer short-term efficiency but come with risks. One breakdown or disruption can cascade through the entire supply chain. Johnsonville’s closure reflects this consolidation logic. The goal is streamlined operations, but it comes at the cost of geographic resilience. Rural plants, once seen as essential, are now viewed as expendable.
The Rural Labor Pool Is Drying Up
Labor availability is another pressure point. The rural workforce in the U.S. has shrunk from over 30 million in 2010 to 28 million by 2023. Meanwhile, the number of Americans over 65 has swelled by more than 2 million. With younger generations leaving for cities, rural employers struggle to fill roles, especially in physically demanding sectors like meat processing. There simply aren’t enough people to keep these plants staffed.
Demographics Are Forcing the Shift
This demographic crunch is forcing companies to rethink their footprints. Areas with aging populations and limited labor pools can’t support large-scale operations anymore. That’s why many businesses are shifting to regions with stronger labor markets, even if it means closing legacy plants. The closures aren’t just economic decisions, they’re responses to long-term population trends that are reshaping the rural workforce.
Johnsonville’s Move Signals the Future
The Johnsonville closure offers more than a local headline, it’s a preview of a nationwide reckoning. The forces pushing companies to consolidate, automate, and relocate aren’t going away. As technology advances and consumer preferences evolve, older ways of operating are being swept aside. The economic geography of America is changing. Places that can’t adapt risk being left behind.
Can Anything Reverse the Trend?
Even policy interventions may not be enough to stop the tide. Local leaders can protest. Politicians can make promises. But without structural solutions, like retraining programs, new industries, or modern infrastructure, towns like Momence will struggle to recover. The question is no longer whether these closures will continue, but how America will respond when they do. Will it rebuild or retreat?
America’s Supply Chain Crossroads
This transformation is bigger than Johnsonville. It touches every link in the food supply chain, every rural town anchored by a single employer, and every worker whose job could be replaced by a machine. Recognizing the scope of this shift is the first step toward dealing with it. If America is to remain resilient, it needs more than efficient systems, it needs sustainable communities.
The New Industrial Era Is Already Here
The abrupt closure in Momence wasn’t just a business decision, it was a signal flare. Meatpacking is only the latest industry to face automation, cost pressures, and consumer change all at once. What happens in these shuttered plants will echo far beyond their walls. If the country hopes to preserve its economic fabric, it must stop treating these closures as isolated incidents, and start planning for the new industrial era that’s already underway.
Discover more DIY hacks and style inspo- Follow us to keep the glow-up coming to your feed!
Love content like this? Tap Follow at the top of the page to stay in the loop with the latest beauty trends, DIY tips, and style inspo. Don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments — we love hearing from you!