Following their 2020 investment in a Thomasville, GA beef facility, Walmart, Inc. recently acquired a minority stake in Sustainable Beef, LLC, located in North Platte, NE.  Their proposed plant will be operational by 2024 and has a projected capacity of 1,500 head per day.

Tyler Lehr, Walmart Senior Vice President of Merchandising for Meat and Seafood, commented, “We are dedicated to providing high-quality, affordable beef to our customers and an investment in Sustainable Beef, LLC will give us more access to these products.”

Walmart has made substantial investments in their supply chain, including a large dairy built in 2017 in Allen County IN. to provide milk for 600 stores in a five-state area.  Could the company be considering an investment in shell egg production, given that they are probably the largest egg retailer in the Nation?  There are a number of prospects, including family-owned production companies that would be able to use an infusion of capital to finance transition to cage-free production.