Times: Kosher Meat Crisis Looms as Iowa Plant Goes Into Bankruptcy

The NY Times reports,

Large Iowa Meatpacker in Illegal Immigrant Raid Files for Bankruptcy
By JULIA PRESTON

The kosher meatpacking company in Iowa that has been struggling with criminal charges and huge fines for labor violations, a dwindling work force and declining demand among Jewish consumers since an immigration raid at its main plant, has filed for bankruptcy.

The filing late Tuesday by Agriprocessors Inc. signaled the demise of a company that has been operated by a single family: the owner, Aaron Rubashkin, and his son Sholom, who built the company into the country’s dominant supplier of kosher meat.

The most curious element in this report comes towards the end of the article:

If the Postville plant closes, it would leave “a significant void in the market that cannot easily be reproduced,” said Rabbi Menachem Genack, the chief executive of the kosher-certifying arm of the Orthodox Union.

I will be working through the night to decode this obviously deep and foreboding message emanating from the esteemed rabbi. Indeed, I will post the solution here on this blog immediately if I do somehow breakthrough to understand what exactly is a, "void that cannot easily be reproduced."

Meanwhile if there really is any shortage, kosher meat consumers will have to subsist on protein rich substitutes such as cheese, soy, fish and other rabinically approved but non-slaughtered food-stuffs.