According to a recent New Your Times (NYT) article: "Slaughterhouses have turned out to be the weakest link in the nation's food supply chain.Some of the country's highest-producing meat plants have closed because workers are getting sick.But shutting down a plant backs up production, crushes prices paid to farmers and eventually leads to months of shortages." In this statement, what are the two markets involved?

Assuming a cattle market is in initial equilibrium prior to the closing of slaughterhouses due to sick workers, what, according to the NYT story above, describe what will happen in the cattle market with respect to market price, demand, supply, quantity demanded and quantity supplied.

Of course, most all of the meat we purchase at grocery stores emanates from slaughterhouses.Consequently, what would we expect to happen in the market for meat products? Describe what will happen in the meat market with respect to market price, demand, supply, quantity demanded and quantity supplied.If prices are not allowed to rise in the meat market, say due to price controls enforced by governments, what can we expect to occur in the markets for meat? If prices are allowed to be flexible, what would one expect to happen to the price of meat at the grocery stores in the future?