For many cities, the prospect of a beef processing plant coming to town would cause nothing but a collective shrug (except in Boulder, where unkempt college students wearing "COWS ARE PEOPLE TOO" t-shirts would chain themselves to the backs of cattle trailers).
A friend of mine (also a native Northeast South Dakotan) and I were recently talking about a large beef processing plant that's coming to Aberdeen, South Dakota. Aberdeen's population has hovered in the neighborhood of 25,000 for about the last 50 years. This is all about to change however, as new workers (read: immigrant families with last names you can't pronounce) will fill newly vacant jobs. (Other upcoming new jobs in Aberdeen include a few hundred openings in banking and finance - though that doesn't garner quite the same headlines).
Check out these unbelievable t-shirts created by local magazine A-List, to promote the beef plant. (Caution -- these guys brew their irony and sarcasm strong). This has been framed as an economic development issue - possibly a trend-setting one. If beef processing is symbolic for broader economic growth in Aberdeen, I'm all for it. Onward!
BC
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