A crane looms above a dusty field just outside of North Platte, where trucks loaded with dirt criss-cross the busy site and workers set up a foundation. Two years ago, an old sewer lagoon took up this stretch of land. Cattails and marshy soil made the field a swampy mess.

Today, it’s the future site of Sustainable Beef, a meatpacking plant that Nebraska ranchers and cattle feeders began organizing in 2020.

It took 18 months, 18 public hearings and seven different public agencies for the idea of a rancher-owned plant to get government approval. With paperwork secured, the physical work has begun.