This year has seen a tremendous resurgence of breakfast meats due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic combined with improved quality, convenient formulations and consumers’ demands for high protein at breakfast.

The meat industry uses refrigeration as the air-chilling system to slow microbial growth and maintain carcass quality. In the pork industry, the time between harvest and fabrication is typically 24 to 48 hours.

The last time that White Oak Pastures was on the cover of this magazine, it was because owner Will Harris had decided to build a processing plant to slaughter his own grass-fed beef. Over the last dozen years, the company continues to be at the forefront of producing pasture-raised beef.

Unprecedented. Uncertain. Historic. Frantic. Challenging. Words have been used daily to describe the sudden havoc COVID-19 wreaked on the food system and the economy as America worked to slow the spread of the disease and save lives while we kept a nation fed.