It's the infrastructure, stupid!  The New York Times discusses the reason it's difficult to produce and sell food grown in a sustainable manner.  The infrastructure that moves product from farm to retail outlets is decreasing just when the demand for sustainably grown, local food is growing.  In Vermont, where there is increased demand for meat and dairy raised in a sustainable manner, farmers are having difficulty.  The state had 25 slaughterhouses in the mid-1080s; now there are seven.  Nationally, the number of slaughterhouses declined from 1,211 in 1992 while the number of small farmers has increased by 108,000 in the last five years.

Randy Quenneville, program manager for the Vermont meat inspection service, said "a number of small, family-owned slaughterhouses started closing when strict federal rules regarding health control went into effect in 1999. Large corporations like Cargill also began to take over much of the nation’s meat market."

Both Quenneville and Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture, are "urging farmers to band together and open local cooperatives or mobile slaughter facilities. The Agriculture Department is financing some mobile units and helping to build a regional facility near the Quad Cities in Illinois and Iowa. Helping small farmers, Mr. Vilsack said, will improve struggling rural economies."