One could say that the start of my tenure with Meatingplace was unorthodox, but that would be a spectacular understatement.

I officially became Meatingplace’s managing editor on April 6, just three weeks after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Between my hiring and April 28 — the date that former President Trump issued an executive order to, in his words, “ensure that meat and poultry processors continue operations” — thousands of meat plant workers would become infected with the virus, more than a dozen processing plants would temporarily close, and production of beef, pork and chicken would fall markedly. It was the journalistic equivalent of being thrown into the deep end with a lead weight strapped to my back, but thanks to the amazing Meatingplace team – along with the generosity and brilliance of meat industry professionals – I am immensely proud of the coverage that we brought to our readers during those frenetic days.

For starters, there was our website, which was updated twice a day with information about infection rates, plant closures and government policy. There was our interactive map, which tracked every North American meat plant that reported COVID infections. And then there was the coverage in our print publication, which was incisive and probing as any COVID coverage in U.S. media: We assessed how the pandemic had exposed some of the meat industry’s vulnerabilities; we asked how the pandemic would accelerate various aspects of meat plant design; we spoke with industry-leading scientists about the virus itself, and the emerging understanding about aerosol transmissions; we investigated how, through ultraviolet light and other technologies, processors were responding to the science and lowering infection rates; and to close out the year, we spoke with seven professionals at different stages of the meat supply chain, and wove their narratives together into a dynamic oral history.

For those efforts, we were honored with a Jesse H. Neal Award nomination, and our coverage has only deepened in 2021. We have documented how processors administered the COVID-19 vaccine to their workers. We have explored how the pandemic may (or may not) have changed consumer appetites and buying habits. And in our most recent issue, we have interviewed leading experts about how the industry can learn from the pandemic and become more resilient. The narrative has shifted, but our drive to deliver top-quality journalism has continued unabated.

And speaking for my own trajectory as an agriculture journalist, the narrative will, in the coming months, shift further in thoroughly exciting ways.

For my first issue with Meatingplace, I wrote an op-ed that detailed why I was excited to cover the meat industry. Referencing my past journalism experiences, I described how intoxicating it is being fully immersed in a subject — the unique thrill that comes from pouring through analyses, studying government statistics, and combining disparate elements into a narrative that informs your readership and leaves them better equipped to tackle the challenges that lay before them.

Those experiences, though, were shared from a considerable distance. Due to the pandemic, processors had rightly closed their doors to visitors, and I was forced to write and edit all the aforementioned content from the safe confines of a basement in Milwaukee. Today’s environment, though, is quite different. Conferences are back and processors are once again welcoming visitors, and I am thrilled with those developments. For the first time in my Meatingplace tenure, I will be able to travel to processing plants — to see the facilities, to learn about the machinery, to talk with the dedicated personnel who keep things humming. I will be able to stroll down the carpeted aisles of convention centers, taking in the industry’s many innovations. And at long last, I will be able to speak with sources one on one, with neither a cell phone nor a computer screen acting as mediator.

And I know that through it all, the coverage at Meatingplace will remain only continue to grow in its depth, focus and quality.

Practicing journalism during a pandemic

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