Rendering Crisis Hits Oregon Livestock Industry You might be forgiven for not knowing this, but Oregon is in the middle of a ‘rendering’ crisis. Rendering is the process by which dead farm animals like cows and horses are turned into products like dog food and leather. As it stands now, there are no such processing plants in the entire state. And as Kristian Foden-Vencil reports, about 100 cows a week are going straight into Oregon's landfills. For a state with a glowing reputation for environmental policies, Oregon has a dirty little secret. Old and sick farm animals are being tossed into landfills after they die or are killed -- instead of being used to make leather, animal feed, fertilizers and other products. The problem started a couple of years ago, when Carl Cacho closed the state's last rendering plant -- Redmond Tallow. The main problem was Mad Cow disease. New regulations banned animals from being used in cattle feed --- so the disease wouldn't spread. Already low bone meal prices dropped through the floor....