My 2 cents, from decades studying politics, vet med, public health, economics......
There is no fix. All animals, including humans, want the most for the least effort (or money). This allows us to accumulate more useless stuff, and also allows us more time to stare at cell phones. That is the dream.
Goods or services can be produced cheaper on a larger scale, as costs per unit of production/sevice are lower.
Which is why we all like Costco, Walmart, Home Depot, Amazon, etc. And we also buy tractors from John Deere, not some local guy that could build us one. Assembly line production is cheapest for tractors or beef.
Another benefit of being big is you can afford and justify having lobbyists that write legislation for their congress buddies to sign, which gives them competitive advantage against the little guys. And you can have people devoted to getting millions in government welfare.
Our government is a corporatocracy. There used to be a Constitution that prevented all such actions, but it is completely ignored. We are now all hogs at the government trough, and the little guy gets the leftovers the corporations leave behind.
Another way we get cheap stuff is having foreign workers willing to do crap work for less, which are who fills our packing plants. BTW, Hispanics more prone to obesity/diabetes, which is risk factor for serious covid illness, or the next bug to come along.
The only way to make some change is education, but that won't affect many.
You would hope some would see the problem with having so few packing plants affecting our food supply, whether affecting supply, or food safety.
Then there are animal welfare concerns you would hope some would care about.
"All have had water and hay available to the cattle. I have yet to witness anyone beating on the cattle. That would just be bad for business wouldn't it? I'm not saying it never happens, but I believe it's rare and not the norm."
Actually, the biggest problems are stress and feed.
Stress with immunosuppression results in pneumonia and other issues. Few understand the whole stress thing. While we understand what is going on when handling and shipping cattle, the calves do not. At each step, they think their life will end.
Stress from weaning, sorting, loading, transport, starving, dehydration, exhaust fumes, cold, heat, co-mingling and social stress (new pecking order), new environment, new feed bunks, new water troughs, new feed, etc, etc. Then there's lack of shade and heat stress, especially in black cattle that the industry demands.
Years ago, I had a Merck manual in which was stated, "Considering all the stress, we shouldn't ask why any cattle die, but rather why do any live"
Here's the latest version:
https://www.merckvetmanual.com/respiratory-system/respiratory-diseases-of-cattle/enzootic-pneumonia-of-calves-and-shipping-fever-pneumonia#v329338
Then there's the whole problem with high carbohydrate rations (grain) causing acidosis, rumen ulceration, liver abscesses, etc.
Antibiotics to the rescue for diseases we create, which raises other concerns.
But again, these issues don't matter, because this is the cheapest way to make pounds of beef. Hauling calves hundreds of miles to auctions, feedlots, and feeding mostly grain to a ruminant designed for grass.
Another factor favoring grain feeding is cheap energy needed to produce it. Cheap if you ignore the trillions we spent on wars to secure the oil.
One hope for smaller producers would be for government to outlaw production methods that rountinely make animals sick in order to save/make money. But again, corporations would never allow any such laws.
Usually when I bring up these issues, cattlemen are offended. So all that's left is to take whatever money the big boys offer. If you can't make it, get a job at the packing plant or Walmart.
