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Meat markets, like many other essential markets for food and household goods, have gone through massive adjustments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lusk, Tonsor, and Schulz (2021) studied the meat supply shock generated by packers operating at lower capacities compared to last year and the effect on packer marketing margins and price spreads. For most of April and May 2020, federally inspected cattle slaughter averaged 22% lower and hog slaughter was 13% lower relative to the same period in 2019 (Lusk, Tonsor, and Schulz, 2021). By the end of June 2020, cattle and hog slaughter had recovered to 2019 levels (Lusk, Tonsor, and Schulz, 2021). Headlines in national newspapers illustrated the intense scrutiny the meat sector experienced between April and May 2020 (Reiley, 2020; Corkery and Yaffe-Bellany, 2020; Brandt, 2020). The trade-off between plant employees’ health and wellbeing and …