vox--2020-05-08--The killing of Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed black jogger in Georgia, explained

The two white men involved in the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery , an unarmed black man jogging through their Georgia neighborhood , were arrested and charged with murder and aggravated assault on Thursday .
The arrests of the father and son — Gregory McMichael , 64 , a former a retired district attorney investigator and police detective , and Travis McMichael , 34 — come after Arbery ’ s family released a video on Tuesday showing the last moments of the 25-year-old ’ s life .
The footage sparked outrage among criminal justice advocates across the country and a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ jury to investigate more than two months after the fatal shooting .
On February 23 , 2020 , Arbery was shot and killed by Travis McMichael after he and his father armed themselves and followed Arbery in a pickup truck after seeing him jog by ; they later told police officers they believed Arbery to be a suspect in two burglaries in the Satilla Shores area .
Prior to the video ’ s release , the only public record of Arbery ’ s final moments were the statements the McMichaels gave to police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Cooper , told CBS News that the newly emerged video “ proves that my son was not committing a crime .
He was out for his daily jog and he was hunted down like an animal and killed.
” Arbery ’ s death has been compared with the shooting deaths of many other unarmed black people , including 17-year-old Trayvon Martin and Botham Jean , who was killed in his Dallas apartment in 2018 .
And the release of the video has sparked protests in Georgia — where social distancing requirements were recently @ @ @ @ @ @ @ through Satilla Shores on Tuesday , promising to “ run with Maud ” and chanting , “ We want justice !
” “ The video is very clear that they were on the truck with guns hunting him down , ” civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump , who represents Arbery ’ s father , told the Associated Press .
“ I don ’ t know what more you need to make an arrest.
” Before Thursday ’ s arrests , an investigation into the shooting had been limited , as a series of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ This has frustrated Arbery ’ s supporters , who argue that his killing — and the subsequent actions of local law enforcement — shows how little has changed in an area of Georgia that ’ s been described as dotted with Confederate flags , with a history of mobs of white men taking justice into their own hands in a manner that leaves black men dead .
Everything we know about Ahmaud Arbery ’ s killing Much of what we know about the circumstances around Arbery ’ s death comes from four sources @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was killed , several 911 calls , accounts from Arbery ’ s friends and family , and a viral video .
None of these provide a complete picture of the 25-year-old ’ s killing .
The police report captures only the narrative of Gregory McMichael , a former police detective and district attorney investigator in Brunswick County .
The 911 recordings feature unknown callers .
It is not clear who took the video , which was filmed through the windshield of a vehicle and has obstructed views of certain key moments .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the time of his death .
“ The video is very clear that they were on the truck with guns hunting him down .
I don ’ t know what more you need to make an arrest.
” Arbery , a former high school football star , was passionate about staying in shape , according to friends and family , who told the New York Times he often spent his free time running .
He went for one such run on February 23 , ending up in Satilla Shores , a few @ @ @ @ @ @ @ County .
Gregory McMichael claims he was in his front yard when he saw Arbery “ hauling ass , ” after which he ran inside to get a weapon and his son , Travis .
He told police that he said , “ Travis , the guy is running down the street , let ’ s go.
” By “ the guy , ” he meant the person responsible for what some in the neighborhood have described as two burglaries .
Larry English , a man building a home in the McMichaels ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in fishing gear from him earlier this year .
English told the Daily Beast he never reported the theft .
The second was reported to police by Travis McMichael , who said a 9mm pistol was stolen on January 1 from a vehicle parked outside his home .
In the police report filed after Arbery ’ s killing , Gregory McMichael said the burglar had been caught on surveillance video and that Arbery matched the description of the suspect .
There seemed to be concern about Arbery ’ s presence in the neighborhood @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the afternoon of February 23 ; although it is not clear who made them , several calls were placed to 911 .
Satilla Shores is a predominantly white neighborhood , one the Daily Beast ’ s Justin Glawe describes as featuring “ several homes ... decorated with Trump flags , one bearing the president ’ s smiling face with the phrase , Make liberals cry again.
” The first featured a caller expressing distress about Arbery being near a house that is under construction on property owned by English .
The caller claimed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is open to the air due to the construction ; the dispatcher asked what Arbery was doing wrong but never received an answer .
Arbery ’ s family has said he ’ s always been inquisitive and was likely just having a look at the bones of the home , since that ’ s something one doesn ’ t see every day .
After that first call , 911 received another , in which the caller said , “ I ’ m out here at Satilla Shores .
There ’ s a black @ @ @ @ @ @ @ caller can be heard yelling , “ Watch that .
Stop , damn it !
Stop !
” but stops responding the dispatcher ’ s inquiries .
As these calls were being made , the McMichaels were preparing to pursue Arbery .
George McMichael told police he armed himself with a .357 magnum while his son got a shotgun .
George told police he felt the weapons were called for because he ’ d seen Arbery in the neighborhood previously with his hand in his pants in a manner suggestive of a firearm @ @ @ @ @ @ @ McMichael ’ s pickup truck and began to chase Arbery through the neighborhood .
Arbery ’ s uncle told the Brunswick News that Arbery was amazingly fast and agile .
And the police report suggests that — despite being on foot — he evaded the McMichaels for a time .
George McMichael claims his son tried to cut off Arbery with his truck , but that he turned around and ran in the other direction .
The police report mentions another person , identified only as “ Roddy , ” tried unsuccessfully to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ well .
McMichael claims they were able to catch up with Arbery and shouted out of the truck , “ Stop , stop , we want to talk to you , ” before stopping the truck beside him , at which point Travis exited with his shotgun .
Then , McMichael claims , Arbery attacked his son , the two men fought over the shotgun , two shots were fired , and then Arbery fell , bleeding .
The officer who wrote the report said Arbery died not long after police arrived on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ filmed from a vehicle — appears to show something slightly different .
Civil rights attorney S. Lee Merritt , who is representing Arbery ’ s family , reposted the video on his Twitter account Tuesday .
As the vehicle turns a bend in a road , a black man wearing a white shirt — what Arbery was described as wearing in 911 calls — can be seen running .
A white pickup truck , ostensibly the McMichaels ’ , blocks his path ; a white man is in the street next to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and another stands in the flatbed .
The video is blocked by the dashboard for a moment , and some unintelligible yelling can be heard .
The video then shows the black man trying to run around the truck .
It ’ s not possible to see what happens next , but there ’ s a gunshot ; the black man and the white man who was standing in the road reappear in the frame , engaged in a struggle , and move off the road , again leaving the video ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the flatbed brings up his firearm , there ’ s another gunshot .
The video Merritt posted ends with the struggle — seemingly over possession of a firearm — continuing .
A longer version available online features a third gunshot , and the black man falling to the pavement , his shirt seemingly red with blood .
When police arrived , Arbery was “ on the ground ‘ bleeding out , ’ ” according to the report .
Travis McMichael had blood on his hands ; his father said this was from Travis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ check for a gun .
Arbery ’ s supporters say this is a clear case of racist murder — but complications have inhibited an investigation Advocates for Arbery argue his killing is a very clear case of racial profiling ; in his caption for the video , Merritt wrote , “ Ahmaud Arbery was pursued by three white men that targeted him solely because of his race and murdered him without justification.
” It ’ s a sentiment echoed by others , including presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden , who tweeted Tuesday @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ahmaud Arbery was killed in cold blood.
” Stacey Abrams , who narrowly lost Georgia ’ s 2018 gubernatorial election and who has said she hopes to become Biden ’ s running mate , demanded a “ full investigation , appropriate charges , and an unbiased prosecution.
” But charges have been slow in coming , due to conflicts of interest and Georgia ’ s stand-your-ground law and citizen ’ s arrest law .
The case is on its third prosecutor ; the first put in charge of the case , Brunswick District @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ d previously employed George McMichael .
The district attorney of Waycross , Georgia , George Barnhill , was then assigned it , but he recused himself after Arbery ’ s mother pointed out his son works in Johnson ’ s office .
Before his recusal , however , Barnhill wrote a letter laying out the reasons he felt the McMichaels had done nothing wrong , noting Georgia has an open-carry law , that a separate state law allows a private citizen to attempt arrests if an “ offense is committed in his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” and that it has a stand-your-ground law that allows someone who feels threatened “ to use deadly force to protect himself , ” without having to first try to retreat or call law enforcement .
Merritt has dismissed Barnhill ’ s interpretation of these laws , telling CNN he doesn ’ t believe the McMichaels were trying to make a citizen ’ s arrest , noting that the McMichaels ’ statements frame the shooting as an act of self-defense .
And he said the citizen ’ s arrest law says “ you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or be in the immediate knowledge of the crime ” but argues the McMichaels never claimed this was the case .
“ The only thing they have ever said is ... that Ahmaud stopped by a house that was under construction and he looked through the window , ” Merritt said Sunday .
“ We don ’ t know if that happened or not , but even if that did happen , that is not a felony that would invoke the citizen ’ s arrest statute that would make this allowable.
” Merritt @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Barnhill ’ s letter , including that Arbery had mental health issues , as well as the district attorney ’ s efforts to point out Arbery was once convicted of shoplifting and of bringing a gun to campus while he was in high school .
“ The reference to ... alleged conduct from high school or shoplifting is absurd and has nothing to do with his murder , ” Merritt said .
The real root of the killing , Merritt suggested , can be seen in the 911 calls , when the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the call but does note , “ There ’ s a black male running down the street.
” Gregory McMichael told the Daily Beast Arbery ’ s race has nothing to do with anything and that he “ never would have gone after someone for their color , ” saying instead that Barnhill ’ s letter is the “ closest version of the truth.
” The actual version of the truth may come to light soon , however .
District Attorney Tom Durden of Hinesville , Georgia , has now taken over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he promised to look at the case without “ any preconceived idea about it ” and announced he will have a grand jury investigate the killing .
He also said he had accepted an offer from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation — an independent state agency with investigative and forensic expertise — for assistance .
Gov .
Kemp promoted the offer on Twitter Tuesday , writing , “ Georgians deserve answers .
State law enforcement stands ready to ensure justice is served.
” On Thursday , the McMichaels were arrested and booked in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ face charges of aggravated assault and murder .
Neither have commented on the arrests as of press time , according to the New York Times .
Meanwhile , civil rights advocates and organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center have called for a federal investigation , citing delays in the state-level efforts .
“ Any system that stands by as an unarmed man is gunned down in the street without any obvious justifiable reason , is also filled with bias and hate , ” Margaret Huang , president and CEO of the Southern @ @ @ @ @ @ @ statement .
“ That these people have not been charged or held to account in any way speaks volumes about the level of respect that law enforcement in Glynn County have for Black lives.
” And what those volumes say , according to Georgia ’ s NAACP , is “ what we all know to be true — justice for all is just not specific enough.
” Correction : An earlier version of this story miscategorized the incidents described by Larry English and Travis McMichael .
They were burglaries .
Every day at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
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Editor’s note, November 24, 2021: This article was last updated in June 2020. Travis and Gregory McMichael and William Bryan have since been found guilty in Ahmaud Arbery’s murder. To read our latest coverage of the verdict, click here.
The three white men arrested in the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery — an unarmed black man who was attacked while jogging — were indicted on murder charges Wednesday by a grand jury in Georgia.
Arbery was killed on February 23, when Gregory McMichael, 64, a retired district attorney investigator and police detective, and his son Travis McMichael, 34, armed themselves and followed him in a pickup truck after seeing him jog by. They later told police officers they believed Arbery to be a suspect in two burglaries in the Satilla Shores area.
The McMichaels — along with neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, who filmed the incident — were arrested and charged last month with murder. And on Wednesday, District Attorney Joyette M. Holmes announced that the Glynn County grand jury had returned an indictment on all three defendants, including four counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault, and one count each of false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.
While the shooting happened months ago, the case did not receive national attention until Bryan’s graphic video — released by Arbery’s family and showing the last moments of the 25-year-old’s life — went viral on May 5.
Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, told CBS News that the video “proves that my son was not committing a crime. He was out for his daily jog and he was hunted down like an animal and killed.”
The footage sparked outrage among criminal justice advocates across the country, and led to the call for a grand jury to investigate the fatal shooting. The Department of Justice is also looking into hate crime charges and reviewing how Arbery’s killing was handled on the state and local levels.
Arbery’s death has been compared with the shooting deaths of many other unarmed black people, including 17-year-old Trayvon Martin and Botham Jean, who was killed in his Dallas apartment in 2018. Protests have continued in Georgia — where social distancing requirements were recently relaxed — with hundreds of people marching through Satilla Shores, promising to “run with Maud” and chanting, “We want justice!”
“The video is very clear that they were on the truck with guns hunting him down,” civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who represents Arbery’s father, told the Associated Press. “I don’t know what more you need to make an arrest.”
Prior to the video’s release, the only public record of Arbery’s final moments were the statements the McMichaels gave to police. An investigation into the shooting had been limited, as a series of prosecutors recused themselves from the case over their ties to Gregory McMichael. This has frustrated Arbery’s supporters, who argue that his killing — and the subsequent actions of local law enforcement — shows how little has changed in an area of Georgia that’s been described as dotted with Confederate flags, with a history of mobs of white men taking justice into their own hands in a manner that leaves black men dead.
Everything we know about Ahmaud Arbery’s killing
Arbery, a former high school football star, was passionate about staying in shape, according to friends and family, who told the New York Times he often spent his free time running. He went for one such run on February 23, ending up in Satilla Shores, a few miles away from his home in Glynn County.
“The video is very clear that they were on the truck with guns hunting him down. I don’t know what more you need to make an arrest.”
Gregory McMichael claims he was in his front yard when he saw Arbery “hauling ass,” after which he ran inside to get a weapon and his son, Travis. He told police that he said, “Travis, the guy is running down the street, let’s go.”
By “the guy,” he meant the person responsible for what some in the neighborhood have described as two burglaries. Larry English, a man whose home was under construction in the McMichaels’ neighborhood, said someone stole $2,500 in fishing gear from him earlier this year, but he never reported the theft, he told the Daily Beast; he also never accused Arbery of committing any crimes.
It has since come to light, however, that the Glynn County Police Department contacted English in December 2019, asking him to reach out to Gregory McMichael whenever he “got action” on his surveillance camera, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Greg is retired Law Enforcement and also a Retired Investigator from the DA’s office,” Officer Robert Rash texted English, along with McMichael’s phone number. “He said please call him day or night when you get action on your camera.” English’s attorney said her client never took McMichael up on his offer.
Trespassing on English’s property was, apparently, a common occurrence. In mid-May, CNN obtained 11 surveillance clips from English’s attorney and found that multiple people, including women and children, had entered the home in the months leading up to Arbery’s death. The only confirmed instance of Arbery himself being on the property was on February 23.
The second burglary in the area was reported to police by Travis McMichael, who said a 9 mm pistol was stolen on January 1 from a vehicle parked outside his home. In the police report filed after Arbery’s killing, Gregory McMichael said the burglar had been caught on surveillance video and that Arbery matched the description of the suspect.
There seemed to be concern about Arbery’s presence in the neighborhood for much of his time there on the afternoon of February 23; several calls, at least one of which was from the McMichaels, were placed to 911. Satilla Shores is a predominantly white neighborhood, one the Daily Beast’s Justin Glawe describes as featuring “several homes ... decorated with Trump flags, one bearing the president’s smiling face with the phrase, Make liberals cry again.”
The first featured a caller expressing distress about Arbery being near a house that is under construction on property owned by English. The dispatcher asked what Arbery was doing wrong but never received an answer. Arbery’s family has said he’s always been inquisitive and was likely just having a look at the bones of the home, since that’s something one doesn’t see every day.
After that first call, 911 received another, in which the caller said, “I’m out here at Satilla Shores. There’s a black male running down the street.” The caller can be heard yelling, “Watch that. Stop, damn it! Stop!” but stops responding to the dispatcher’s inquiries.
As these calls were being made, the McMichaels were preparing to pursue Arbery. Gregory McMichael told police he armed himself with a .357 magnum while his son got a shotgun. He told police he felt the weapons were called for because he’d seen Arbery in the neighborhood previously with his hand in his pants in a manner suggestive of a firearm. Then the men got into Travis McMichael’s pickup truck and began to chase Arbery through the neighborhood.
Arbery’s uncle told the Brunswick News that Arbery was amazingly fast and agile. And the police report suggests that — despite being on foot — he evaded the McMichaels for a time. Gregory McMichael claims his son tried to cut off Arbery with his truck, but that he turned around and ran in the other direction.
The police report mentions another person, identified only as “Roddy” — William Bryan — who tried unsuccessfully to cut Arbery off with his vehicle.
McMichael claims they were able to catch up with Arbery and shouted out of the truck, “Stop, stop, we want to talk to you,” before stopping the truck beside him, at which point Travis exited with his shotgun. Then, McMichael claims, Arbery attacked his son, the two men fought over the shotgun, two shots were fired, and then Arbery fell, bleeding. The officer who wrote the report said Arbery died not long after police arrived on the scene.
But the video — filmed by Bryan from his vehicle — appears to show something slightly different. Civil rights attorney S. Lee Merritt, who is representing Arbery’s family, reposted the video on his Twitter account on May 5.
As the vehicle turns a bend in a road, a black man wearing a white shirt — what Arbery was described as wearing in 911 calls — can be seen running. A white pickup truck, ostensibly the McMichaels’, blocks his path; a white man is in the street next to the driver’s side of the truck, and another stands in the flatbed. The video is blocked by the dashboard for a moment, and some unintelligible yelling can be heard. The video then shows the black man trying to run around the truck.
It’s not possible to see what happens next, but there’s a gunshot; the black man and the white man who was standing in the road reappear in the frame, engaged in a struggle, and move off the road, again leaving the video’s frame. As the man in the flatbed brings up his firearm, there’s another gunshot. The video Merritt posted ends with the struggle — seemingly over possession of a firearm — continuing. A longer version available online features a third gunshot, and the black man falling to the pavement, his shirt seemingly red with blood.
While the police were en route, Arbery was “on the ground ‘bleeding out,’” according to the report. Travis McMichael had blood on his hands; his father said this was from Travis rolling Arbery’s body over to check for a gun.
An autopsy report released May 12 revealed that Arbery was shot twice in the chest and “had a third wound” on one of his wrists.
Arbery’s supporters say this is a clear case of racist murder — but complications have inhibited an investigation
Advocates for Arbery argue his killing is a very clear case of racial profiling; in his caption for the video, Merritt wrote, “Ahmaud Arbery was pursued by three white men that targeted him solely because of his race and murdered him without justification.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by others, including presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, who tweeted, “The video is clear: Ahmaud Arbery was killed in cold blood.”
Stacey Abrams, who narrowly lost Georgia’s 2018 gubernatorial election and who has said she hopes to become Biden’s running mate, demanded a “full investigation, appropriate charges, and an unbiased prosecution.”
But charges were slow coming, due to conflicts of interest and Georgia’s stand-your-ground law and citizen’s arrest law.
The case is on its fourth prosecutor; the first put in charge of the case, Brunswick District Attorney Jackie Johnson, recused herself because she’d previously employed Gregory McMichael. The district attorney of Waycross, Georgia, George Barnhill, was then assigned to it, but he recused himself after Arbery’s mother pointed out his son works in Johnson’s office.
Barnhill officially recused himself in an April 7 letter — and in it, he wrote that his son and Gregory McMichael “both helped with the previous prosecution of Arbery” on behalf of Johnson’s office. Arbery was convicted of probation violation after facing a shoplifting charge in 2018, something Barnhill pointed out in an earlier letter in which he laid out the reasons he believed the McMichaels had done nothing wrong.
In that letter, dated April 3, Barnhill suggested Arbery had mental health issues, and highlighted not just the shoplifting issue, but also the incident that led to Arbery being placed on probation: having brought a gun to campus while he was in high school.
The letter also notes Georgia has an open-carry law, a separate state law allows a private citizen to attempt arrests if an “offense is committed in his presence or within his immediate knowledge,” and that it has a stand-your-ground law that allows someone who feels threatened “to use deadly force to protect himself,” without having to first try to retreat or call law enforcement.
Merritt has dismissed Barnhill’s interpretation of these laws, telling CNN he doesn’t believe the McMichaels were trying to make a citizen’s arrest, noting that the McMichaels’ statements frame the shooting as an act of self-defense.
And he said the citizen’s arrest law says “you actually have to be observing the crime or be in the immediate knowledge of the crime” but argues the McMichaels never claimed this was the case.
The Washington Post also reported that Gregory McMichael had his law enforcement certification suspended last year after repeatedly failing to complete required training. He also received a warning in 2014 for neglecting to finish mandatory firearms and use-of-force classes.
Merritt has also pushed back against other claims in Barnhill’s letter, including the references to Arbery’s mental health and previous interactions with the legal system.
“The reference to ... alleged conduct from high school or shoplifting is absurd and has nothing to do with his murder,” Merritt said.
The shoplifting case does connect Barnhill, Gregory McMichael, and Arbery, however. When Barnhill recused himself in an April 7 letter, he wrote that his son and Gregory McMichael “both helped with the previous prosecution of Arbery” on behalf of Johnson’s office.
The real impetus behind the killing, Merritt suggested, can be seen in the 911 calls, when the caller fails to give a clear reason for the call but does note, “There’s a black male running down the street.”
Gregory McMichael told the Daily Beast Arbery’s race was irrelevant and that he “never would have gone after someone for their color,” saying instead that Barnhill’s letter is the “closest version of the truth.”
Meanwhile, pressure has mounted for Barnhill and Johnson to be removed from office. Protesters gathered at the Glynn County Courthouse on May 16 to demand their resignations.
“Racism is real in America and racism is real in Brunswick, Georgia and we come today to send a message to the racists and the supremacist that we will fight you with everything that we have,” Rev. Timothy McDonald said at the protests, Reuters reported.
Investigations have ramped up since the video went viral
Two days after the state took over the case, the McMichaels were arrested and booked in a Glynn County jail. A day later, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Vic Reynolds announced that Bryan was also under investigation. He was charged with felony murder and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment two weeks later.
On May 10, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr announced he had asked the Department of Justice to investigate the handling of the case. “We are committed to a complete and transparent review of how the Ahmaud Arbery case was handled from the outset,” Carr said in a statement. “The family, the community and the state of Georgia deserve answers, and we will work with others in law enforcement at the state and federal level to find those answers.”
Meanwhile, Carr reassigned the case to a new district attorney, Joyette Holmes of Cobb County, which is northwest of Atlanta. In a statement, Carr said that while Durden had been executing his duties well, he believed someone with more resources was needed.
On June 24, Holmes announced an indictment with nine counts against each of the three defendants: malice murder, four counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.
Correction: An earlier version of this story miscategorized the incidents described by Larry English and Travis McMichael. They were described as thefts or burglaries.


vox--2020-05-08--America’s meat shortage is more serious than your missing hamburgers

If you go to Wendy ’ s this week , there ’ s a good chance you won ’ t be able to get a hamburger .
Go to the supermarket , and you ’ ll probably see some empty shelves in the meat section .
You may also be restricted to buying one or two packs of whatever ’ s available .
Try not to look at the prices .
They ’ re almost definitely higher than what you ’ re used to .
This is the new reality : an America where beef , chicken , and pork @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as they were even a month ago .
The coronavirus pandemic has hit the meatpacking industry hard , as some of the worst virus outbreaks in the United States have occurred in the tight , chilly confines of meat processing plants .
Standing elbow-to-elbow , workers there — many of them immigrants , in already dangerous roles and making minimum wage — are facing some of the highest infection rates in the nation .
Sick workers mean meatpacking plants are shutting down , and these closures are contributing to a deeply disruptive breakdown @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vast majority of meat processing takes place in a small number of plants controlled by a handful of large corporations , namely Tyson Foods , Smithfield Foods , JBS USA Holdings Inc. , and Cargill Inc. More than a dozen of these companies ’ beef , chicken , and pork plants closed in April , and despite an order by President Trump to reopen the plants , managers fear that doing so will put lives at risk so facilities continue to close .
There have been nearly 5,000 reported cases of workers with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nationwide .
At least 20 meatpacking workers have died .
And that ’ s just what ’ s already happened .
As the pandemic ’ s effects stretch into the summer , outbreaks in meatpacking plants are creating ripple effects .
Slower lines in the plants mean less meat makes it to market , while farmers are euthanizing millions of animals that can ’ t get processed due to the slowdown of the lines .
It ’ s a paradox that could disrupt America ’ s food supply for years to come .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ into perspective .
The plight of these workers is just the starting point in a chain of crises the coronavirus is creating in America ’ s food supply .
The shuttered meatpacking plants have created a bottleneck in the system through which most meat in the United States must flow in order to get ground beef to Wendy ’ s , chicken breasts to your local grocery stores , bacon to the nearby diner now trying to run out a takeout business , and so on .
Things get really tricky on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thousands of farmers have planned the lives of their animals around a schedule that terminates at those meatpacking facilities .
If those plants aren ’ t operating , it ’ s not like they can just keep the cows , chickens , or pigs in a nearby field .
“ If you hold them , they gain weight and you have to feed them , and that ’ s expensive , ” Mary Hendrickson , a rural sociologist at the University of Missouri , told Recode .
“ And if they gain too @ @ @ @ @ @ @ going to be too big to be processed in these very standardized meat plants , like Smithfield.
” “ So you might try to hold them up ” and keep the animals waiting in a feedlot , Hendrickson added .
“ Or you ’ re going to kill them , euthanize them.
” Now imagine this at scale .
According to Jayson Lusk , an agricultural economist at Purdue University , the meat processing capacity in the United States is down by about 40 percent .
In the pork industry alone , that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t get sent to slaughter , because the meatpacking plants that would process them are closed or otherwise unavailable .
If nothing else changes , those 200,000 excess pigs a day become a million pigs a week with nowhere to go but a mass grave .
“ I think that those numbers are pretty staggering , ” Lusk said .
“ But that ’ s the reality of the situation.
” The pork situation is actually more forgiving than what ’ s happening to beef .
While hogs take about nine months to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ take up to 24 months .
So euthanizing and burying a herd of cattle could send ripple effects through a farm ’ s productivity for years , since euthanized herds mean lost revenue and less investment , squeezing farmers who were already fighting to compete in an industry with tight margins .
None of this means that America will run out of hamburgers or chicken fingers or bacon in the foreseeable future .
However , this historic disruption in America ’ s meat supply is bound to have more lasting effects on workers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ way we think about food itself .
Meatpacking companies could turn to automation , putting workers out of jobs , while struggling farmers might be forced to consolidate , further shifting power to big agriculture .
Upton Sinclair continues to be right about meatpacking Understanding how we got to a point in the United States where two months of disruption caused the whole system to break down requires some historical perspective .
If all this has you thinking about The Jungle , you ’ re on the right track .
Upton Sinclair ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ industry upside down just over a century ago , exposing inhuman working conditions for immigrants in processing plants in Chicago .
But the public seemed less interested in the human interest aspect of the book , instead fixating on details of the dangerously unsanitary meatpacking plants .
A few months after The Jungle was published in 1906 , the United States government passed the Meat Inspection Act and established the Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) .
Sinclair famously said of the legislation , “ I aimed at the public ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it in the stomach.
” What Sinclair said then still rings true .
While the FDA did address public concern over more sanitary conditions in the plants , the workers continued to struggle , doing back-breaking labor for low wages .
Meanwhile , the whole meat industry was tightly controlled by a handful of powerful corporations .
This is all still true today .
It was technology that laid the groundwork for America ’ s hyper-consolidated meat supply .
The innovation of the refrigerated rail car in the late 19th century meant that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ States more easily than animals .
Chicago meat magnate Gustavus Swift ’ s company perfected the design for the first “ ice boxes on wheels , ” enabling the shipment of meat across the United States and the world .
Another Chicago firm , Armour and Company , became early adopters of refrigerated boxcars , and consolidation of the industry followed .
By the turn of the century , the so-called “ Big Five ” packers controlled the vast majority of the meat industry , including the infrastructure that connected farms to processing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Americans were suddenly enjoying more kinds of meat for lower prices .
This centralized model for meat production , especially for beef , hasn ’ t changed much in the last hundred or so years .
The system built by the original Big Five became a paradigm for the modern industrial agriculture business in the United States , and some of those companies still have a tight grip on America ’ s food supply .
Swift and Company is now part of JBS USA .
Armour and Company got bought by ConAgra , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Smithfield Foods .
Meatpacking remains consolidated to a few dozen Midwestern processing plants , many of which are owned by a handful of huge corporations , like JBS and Smithfield .
That ’ s why when a few of these processors get shut down , due to a pandemic or something else , the country ’ s entire meat supply suffers .
“ The meat supply system relies on a very efficient , well-managed set of logistics , ” said Maureen Ogle , historian and author of In Meat We Trust .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the coronavirus has disrupted at least one critical link in the meat supply chain in a way that has never been disrupted before , and that one disruption is rippling through the whole system , causing bottlenecks and all kinds of other issues.
” You could argue Upton Sinclair tried to warn us .
Consolidation of the meatpacking industry had begun years before The Jungle grossed out the world , but while the legislation that followed in the early 20th century improved certain aspects of how processing works , Americans were already @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and seemed unwilling to part with the luxury , regardless of how despicable the industry was .
So the industry didn ’ t change .
Many people looked right past the plight of the immigrants working Chicago ’ s meatpacking plants , and the big meat corporations continued to exploit the cheap labor .
A hundred years later , workers in meatpacking plants are getting sick and dying right now , but most Americans are instead focusing their attention on Wendy ’ s being out of burgers .
Supply chain struggles aren ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ full-page ad that ran in the New York Times and other papers on April 26 , Tyson Foods chairman John H. Tyson said “ the food supply chain is breaking ” and warned that “ millions of animals — chickens , pigs , and cattle will be depopulated because of the closure of our processing facilities.
” Two days later , President Trump issued an executive order , declaring meat processing plants to be “ critical infrastructure ” and attempting to keep workers on the line .
Unions cried foul , arguing that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over their members ’ lives .
Public health officials called to close more plants experiencing outbreaks , but in some instances , the government kept those plants open .
There was no meaningful meat shortage at the time .
Contrary to what the Tyson ad said , the closures of meatpacking plants have so far only rattled the food supply chain , causing meat prices to go up and stores to run out of certain items .
Even as dozens of processing plants were closing due to outbreaks , the meat giants had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of frozen meat in storage that would keep grocery stores in stock .
The US commercial stockpile of meat was actually especially large this spring , after the meat industry had ramped up production in anticipation for greater demand in China , where an outbreak of African swine flu had ravaged its pork supply .
Despite Trump ’ s order and the public ’ s worrying over shortages , pork exports to China were still surging in early May .
However , availability issues did start to crop up after stay-at-home orders shifted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shelves in grocery store meat departments led to rationing , and the prices of popular items like chicken breasts and ground beef went up .
Restaurants closed , and the distributors that supply them found themselves with a surplus of meat that wasn ’ t packaged or labeled to be sold in grocery stores .
Some distributors actually opened to the public , selling sides of beef and other wholesale cuts to families brave enough to do a little butchering at home .
As time has gone on , more primal and sub-primal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in grocery stores , too .
“ That ’ s a direct reflection of two things , ” said Lusk , the economist .
“ One is the reduced availability of labor in the packing plant .
The second thing is , some of it may due to the fact that we ’ re pulling inventory out of cold storage.
” You should expect to see more of this in the weeks and months to come .
As the supply of retail cuts of meat goes down , what does show up in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ different as distributors scramble to meet demand .
That , and prices will go up .
Beef trimmings , which are used in Wendy ’ s burgers , cost 25 cents per pound on April 1 .
By the first week of May , they were up to $ 1.93 a pound .
So Wendy ’ s could get beef , but it ’ s running low on burgers because beef is getting too expensive for the fast food market right now .
What ’ s more serious than the shortage There is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s much scarier than the one where we suffer from expensive ground beef .
It ’ s entirely possible that meatpacking plants will continue to shut down due to Covid-19 outbreaks , and this will lead to years of disruptions to the American food supply .
Based on the level of panic in the boardrooms of companies like Tyson Foods , this doesn ’ t just seem possible .
It seems likely .
In a May 4 investor call , Tyson said that its hog processing capacity was down 50 percent .
One @ @ @ @ @ @ @ figure is actually closer to 75 percent .
With many of its plants closed and others operating at reduced capacity , Tyson said it expects “ to continue to face slowdowns and temporary idling of production facilities ” in the near future due to worker shortages and cleanings .
“ We will not hesitate to idle any plant for deep cleaning when the need arises , ” Tyson chief executive Noel White said on the call .
The situation isn ’ t much different for the other major meat processing companies .
Smithfield @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , as well as its massive Sioux Falls plant , which is one of the nation ’ s largest .
Cargill shuttered plants in Pennsylvania and Nebraska .
JBS USA shut down its beef production facility in Colorado and a pork plant in Minnesota .
The latter recently reopened with a new option “ to provide producers with a humane euthanasia option.
” This is another way of saying that the corporation will help farmers kill and bury their animals rather than process them for human consumption .
Other plants are reopening with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ down the processing line and allows only a limited number of workers to return .
Meanwhile , the conditions for the animals in all of these situations are potentially worse than before as uncertainty leaves them waiting longer in boxcars and holding pens rather than living in open spaces .
One would think that the closure of so many large meatpacking plants would mean that small and midsize processors could handle some of the backlog .
That certainly sounds better than killing millions of cows , pigs , and chickens and then burying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the way the meat industry is structured , this just isn ’ t possible .
“ The top four beef processors process over 80 percent of the heifer slaughter , and that is the beef that generally gets sold through the grocery stores , ” explained Hendrickson , the rural sociologist .
“ Over 60 percent of poultry and pork are processed by the largest firms.
” She added that poultry is so vertically integrated that corporations like Tyson actually own the chickens themselves , and everybody involved in getting that chicken @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for Tyson .
The smaller processors don ’ t have the capacity to deal with all these cows , chickens , and pigs .
The coronavirus pandemic does not have an expiration date , so we don ’ t know how long these plants might struggle with outbreaks among workers that will further delay processing or shut down more plants .
Even with some version of social distancing in place , it ’ s apparent that these facilities , like nursing homes and prisons , are especially prone to Covid outbreaks .
These @ @ @ @ @ @ @ amount of certainty for farmers , who don ’ t know if the animals they ’ ve been raising for months or years will make it to the slaughterhouse or will get euthanized and dumped in a ditch .
Farmers have to do this or they stand to lose more money by attempting to keep the animals alive long enough to get sold to a meat processing plant .
Some farmers might be able to sell the carcasses to a rendering plant , where they can be processed into ingredients for things like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s all also bad news for the small- and medium-sized meat processors , which simply aren ’ t designed to handle the large volumes required to keep the supply chain intact .
It ’ s troubling for grocery stores because all of the turmoil in the meat supply chain could eventually change the way people eat .
( There ’ s already evidence that plant-based food businesses are booming . )
And for consumers like you — well , you don ’ t know if you ’ ll be able to afford to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this summer .
“ We Americans want what we want , ” said Ogle , the historian .
“ We have a deep sense of entitlement when it comes to food.
” There ’ s probably not going to be a meat shortage any time soon .
You probably will continue to enjoy meat , although it might not be as cheap or readily available as it used to be .
Over time , there is evidence that the American food supply will be more chaotic and unpredictable , too .
Along the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ meatpacking plants will probably die .
More animals will die , perhaps millions more .
Some farmers might lose their land .
So it ’ s not really about the burgers .
There ’ s a version of America and its food consumption habits that existed three months ago that might never exist again .
Some might feel entitled to getting that back .
Others will find something new to want .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .

If you go to Wendy’s this week, there’s a good chance you won’t be able to get a hamburger. Go to the supermarket and you’ll probably see some empty shelves in the meat section. You may also be restricted to buying one or two packs of whatever’s available. Try not to look at the prices. They’re almost definitely higher than what you’re used to.
This is the new reality: an America where beef, chicken, and pork are not quite as abundant or affordable as they were even a month ago. The coronavirus pandemic has hit the meatpacking industry hard, as some of the worst virus outbreaks in the United States have occurred in the tight, chilly confines of meat processing plants. Standing elbow-to-elbow, workers there — many of them immigrants, in already dangerous roles and making minimum wage — are facing some of the highest infection rates in the nation.
Sick workers mean meatpacking plants are shutting down, and these closures are contributing to a deeply disruptive breakdown in the meat supply chain. The vast majority of meat processing takes place in a small number of plants controlled by a handful of large corporations, namely Tyson Foods, Smithfield Foods, JBS USA Holdings Inc., and Cargill Inc. More than a dozen of these companies’ beef, chicken, and pork plants closed in April, and despite an order by President Trump to reopen the plants, managers fear that doing so will put lives at risk so facilities continue to close. There have been nearly 5,000 reported cases of workers with Covid-19 at some 115 meat processing facilities nationwide. At least 20 meatpacking workers have died.
And that’s just what’s already happened. As the pandemic’s effects stretch into the summer, outbreaks in meatpacking plants are creating ripple effects. Slower lines in the plants mean less meat makes it to market, while farmers are slaughtering millions of animals that can’t get processed due to the slowdown of the lines. It’s a paradox that could disrupt America’s food supply for years to come.
This context should put your missing hamburger into perspective. The plight of these workers is just the starting point in a chain of crises the coronavirus is creating in America’s food supply. The shuttered meatpacking plants have created a bottleneck in the system through which most meat in the United States must flow in order to get ground beef to Wendy’s, chicken breasts to your local grocery stores, bacon to the nearby diner now trying to run a takeout business, and so on.
Things get really tricky on the other side of that bottleneck, where thousands of farmers have planned the lives of their animals around a schedule that terminates at those meatpacking facilities. If those plants aren’t operating, it’s not like they can just keep the cows, chickens, or pigs in a nearby field.
“If you hold them, they gain weight and you have to feed them, and that’s expensive,” Mary Hendrickson, a rural sociologist at the University of Missouri, told Recode. “And if they gain too much weight, then they’re going to be too big to be processed in these very standardized meat plants, like Smithfield.”
“So you might try to hold them up” and keep the animals waiting in a feedlot, Hendrickson added. “Or you’re going to kill them, euthanize them.”
Now imagine this at scale. According to Jayson Lusk, an agricultural economist at Purdue University, the meat processing capacity in the United States is down by about 40 percent. In the pork industry alone, that amounts to 200,000 pigs that won’t get sent to slaughter, because the meatpacking plants that would process them are closed or otherwise unavailable. If nothing else changes, those 200,000 excess pigs a day become a million pigs a week with nowhere to go but a mass grave.
“I think that those numbers are pretty staggering,” Lusk said. “But that’s the reality of the situation.”
The pork situation is actually more forgiving than what’s happening to beef. While hogs take about nine months to get to slaughter weight, cows can take up to 24 months. So slaughtering and burying a herd of cattle could send ripple effects through a farm’s productivity for years, since slaughtered herds mean lost revenue and less investment, squeezing farmers who were already fighting to compete in an industry with tight margins.
None of this means that America will run out of hamburgers or chicken fingers or bacon in the foreseeable future. However, this historic disruption in America’s meat supply is bound to have more lasting effects on workers, farmers, and perhaps even the way we think about food itself. Meatpacking companies could turn to automation, putting workers out of jobs, while struggling farmers might be forced to consolidate, further shifting power to big agriculture.
Upton Sinclair continues to be right about meatpacking
Understanding how we got to a point in the United States where two months of disruption caused the whole system to break down requires some historical perspective.
If all this has you thinking about The Jungle, you’re on the right track. Upton Sinclair’s muckraking novel turned the American meat industry upside down just over a century ago, exposing inhuman working conditions for immigrants in processing plants in Chicago. But the public seemed less interested in the human interest aspect of the book, instead fixating on details of the dangerously unsanitary meatpacking plants. A few months after The Jungle was published in 1906, the US government passed the Meat Inspection Act and established the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Sinclair famously said of the legislation, “I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.”
What Sinclair said then still rings true. While the FDA did address public concern over more sanitary conditions in the plants, the workers continued to struggle, doing back-breaking labor for low wages. Meanwhile, the whole meat industry was tightly controlled by a handful of powerful corporations. This is all still true today.
It was technology that laid the groundwork for America’s hyper-consolidated meat supply. The innovation of the refrigerated rail car in the late 19th century meant that meat could be shipped across the United States more easily than animals. Chicago meat magnate Gustavus Swift’s company perfected the design for the first “ice boxes on wheels,” enabling the shipment of meat across the United States and the world. Another Chicago firm, Armour and Company, became an early adopter of refrigerated boxcars, and consolidation of the industry followed. By the turn of the century, the “Big Five” packers controlled the vast majority of the meat industry, including the infrastructure that connected farms to processing plants to the dinner table, where Americans were suddenly enjoying more kinds of meat for lower prices.
This centralized model for meat production, especially for beef, hasn’t changed much in the last hundred or so years. The system built by the original Big Five became a paradigm for the modern industrial agriculture business in the United States, and some of those companies still have a tight grip on America’s food supply. Swift and Company is now part of JBS USA. Armour and Company got bought by ConAgra, and the Amour brand was later sold to Smithfield Foods. Meatpacking remains consolidated to a few dozen Midwestern processing plants, many of which are owned by a handful of huge corporations, like JBS and Smithfield. That’s why when a few of these processors get shut down, due to a pandemic or something else, the country’s entire meat supply suffers.
“The meat supply system relies on a very efficient, well-managed set of logistics,” said Maureen Ogle, historian and author of In Meat We Trust. “But the problem right now is that the coronavirus has disrupted at least one critical link in the meat supply chain in a way that has never been disrupted before, and that one disruption is rippling through the whole system, causing bottlenecks and all kinds of other issues.”
You could argue Upton Sinclair tried to warn us. Consolidation of the meatpacking industry had begun years before The Jungle grossed out the world, but while the legislation that followed in the early 20th century improved certain aspects of how processing works, Americans were already hooked on cheap, readily available meat and seemed unwilling to part with the luxury, regardless of how despicable the industry was. So the industry didn’t change. Many people looked right past the plight of the immigrants working Chicago’s meatpacking plants, and the big meat corporations continued to exploit the cheap labor. A hundred years later, workers in meatpacking plants are getting sick and dying right now, but most Americans are instead focusing their attention on Wendy’s being out of burgers.
Supply chain struggles aren’t the same as shortages
In a full-page ad that ran in the New York Times and other papers on April 26, Tyson Foods chair John H. Tyson said “the food supply chain is breaking” and warned that “millions of animals — chickens, pigs, and cattle will be depopulated because of the closure of our processing facilities.” Two days later, President Trump issued an executive order, declaring meat processing plants to be “critical infrastructure” and attempting to keep workers on the line. Unions cried foul, arguing that corporate interests would continue to put profits over their members’ lives. Public health officials called to close more plants experiencing outbreaks, but in some instances, the government kept those plants open.
There was no meaningful meat shortage at the time. Contrary to what the Tyson ad said, the closures of meatpacking plants have so far only rattled the food supply chain, causing meat prices to go up and stores to run out of certain items.
Even as dozens of processing plants were closing due to outbreaks, the meat giants had at least a couple weeks’ worth of frozen meat in storage that would keep grocery stores in stock. The US commercial stockpile of meat was actually especially large this spring, after the meat industry had ramped up production in anticipation for greater demand in China, where an outbreak of African swine fever had ravaged its pork supply. Despite Trump’s order and the public’s worrying over shortages, pork exports to China were still surging in early May.
However, availability issues did start to crop up after stay-at-home orders shifted eating habits across the country. Empty shelves in grocery store meat departments led to rationing, and the prices of popular items like chicken breasts and ground beef went up. Restaurants closed and the distributors that supply them found themselves with a surplus of meat that wasn’t packaged or labeled to be sold in grocery stores. Some distributors actually opened to the public, selling sides of beef and other wholesale cuts to families brave enough to do a little butchering at home. As time has gone on, more primal and subprimal cuts of meat have started showing up in grocery stores, too.
“That’s a direct reflection of two things,” said Lusk, the economist. “One is the reduced availability of labor in the packing plant. The second thing is, some of it may due to the fact that we’re pulling inventory out of cold storage.”
You should expect to see more of this in the coming weeks and months. As the supply of retail cuts of meat goes down, what does show up in your grocery store might look a little different as distributors scramble to meet demand. That, and prices will go up. Beef trimmings, which are used in Wendy’s burgers, cost 25 cents per pound on April 1. By the first week of May, they were up to $1.93 a pound. So Wendy’s could get beef, but it’s running low on burgers because beef is getting too expensive for the fast food market right now.
What’s more serious than the shortage
There is another potential future, one that’s much scarier than the one where we suffer from expensive ground beef. It’s entirely possible that meatpacking plants will continue to shut down due to Covid-19 outbreaks, and this will lead to years of disruptions to the American food supply. Based on the level of panic in the boardrooms of companies like Tyson Foods, this doesn’t just seem possible. It seems likely.
In a May 4 investor call, Tyson said that its hog processing capacity was down 50 percent. One economist told the Washington Post that the figure is actually closer to 75 percent. With many of its plants closed and others operating at reduced capacity, Tyson said it expects “to continue to face slowdowns and temporary idling of production facilities” in the near future due to worker shortages and cleanings. “We will not hesitate to idle any plant for deep cleaning when the need arises,” Tyson chief executive Noel White said on the call.
The situation isn’t much different for the other major meat processing companies. Smithfield has closed plants in Wisconsin and Missouri, as well as its massive Sioux Falls plant, which is one of the nation’s largest. Cargill shuttered plants in Pennsylvania and Nebraska. JBS USA shut down its beef production facility in Colorado and a pork plant in Minnesota. The latter recently reopened with a new option “to provide producers with a humane euthanasia option.” This is another way of saying that the corporation will help farmers kill and bury their animals rather than process them for human consumption. Other plants are reopening with social distancing in place, which slows down the processing line and allows only a limited number of workers to return.
Meanwhile, the conditions for the animals in all of these situations are potentially worse than before as uncertainty leaves them waiting longer in boxcars and holding pens rather than living in open spaces.
One would think that the closure of so many large meatpacking plants would mean that small and midsize processors could handle some of the backlog. That certainly sounds better than killing millions of cows, pigs, and chickens and then burying them in mass graves. But because of the way the meat industry is structured, this just isn’t possible.
“The top four beef processors process over 80 percent of the heifer slaughter, and that is the beef that generally gets sold through the grocery stores,” explained Hendrickson, the rural sociologist. “Over 60 percent of poultry and pork are processed by the largest firms.” She added that poultry is so vertically integrated that corporations like Tyson actually own the chickens themselves, and everybody involved in getting that chicken to the store is just a contractor for Tyson.
The smaller processors don’t have the capacity to deal with all these cows, chickens, and pigs. The coronavirus pandemic does not have an expiration date, so we don’t know how long these plants might struggle with outbreaks among workers that will further delay processing or shut down more plants. Even with some version of social distancing in place, it’s apparent that these facilities, like nursing homes and prisons, are especially prone to Covid-19 outbreaks.
These facts ultimately add up to an unnerving amount of uncertainty for farmers, who don’t know if the animals they’ve been raising for months or years will make it to the slaughterhouse or get dumped in a ditch. Farmers have to do this or they stand to lose more money by attempting to keep the animals alive long enough to get sold to a meat processing plant. Some farmers might be able to sell the carcasses to a rendering plant, where they can be processed into ingredients for things like pet food and shampoo.
It’s also bad news for the small and medium meat processors, which simply aren’t designed to handle the large volumes required to keep the supply chain intact. It’s troubling for grocery stores because all of the turmoil in the meat supply chain could eventually change the way people eat. (There’s already evidence that plant-based food businesses are booming.) And for consumers like you — well, you don’t know if you’ll be able to afford to eat hamburgers or chicken fingers or bacon this summer.
“We Americans want what we want,” said Ogle, the historian. “We have a deep sense of entitlement when it comes to food.”
There’s probably not going to be a meat shortage anytime soon. You probably will continue to enjoy meat, although it might not be as cheap or readily available as it used to be. Over time, there is evidence that the American food supply will be more chaotic and unpredictable, too. Along the way, more poorly paid workers in meatpacking plants will probably die. More animals will die, perhaps millions more. Some farmers might lose their land.
So it’s not really about the burgers. There’s a version of America and its food consumption habits that existed three months ago that might never exist again. Some might feel entitled to getting that back. Others will find something new to want.


vox--2020-05-08--“I feel incredibly exhausted all the time”: 6 families on juggling child care during the pandemic

A single mom homeschooling her preteen while caring for her toddler .
Another mom managing both her child ’ s school schedule and her own .
Two parents splitting their workdays in half to take care of their son .
With tens of thousands of schools , as well as numerous day care centers , closed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic , millions of families around the country have stories like these : stories of how they make their lives work when their kids are suddenly home all day , every day .
For some , it ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a new way as a family .
“ It ’ s nice to be with our kids all day , ” one mom told Vox .
But for many parents , it ’ s still really , really hard .
Moms and dads have become teachers , expected to supervise a totally new form of school for most kids — online learning — often with no training .
If they ’ re working from home , parents are trying to juggle child care with Zoom meetings and projects , sometimes working hours every @ @ @ @ @ @ @ during the day .
“ I feel incredibly exhausted all the time , ” one mom said .
If they ’ re working outside the home in health care or other essential jobs , parents are finding care for their kids with family members , at emergency centers , or with groups that have sprung up in recent weeks to support front-line workers .
But even with help , these workers are facing a lot of anxiety .
One dad , a nurse , told Vox he ’ s worried about bringing Covid-19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is caring for his kids .
Meanwhile , for the millions of American parents who are unemployed right now , the days are often spent taking care of children while trying to get a new job or file for unemployment .
With most Americans still under shelter-in-place orders , the experience of parenting during the pandemic can be isolating , and it ’ s easy to wonder whether everyone else is somehow managing better than you are .
To break through the isolation a bit , Vox spoke to six parents about how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ challenges are , what makes things a little easier , and what they need right now .
Their stories — of stress , sleeplessness , and sometimes moments of joy — are below .
Hayley Gorbet and Philip Scott Gorbet : “ How am I going to pull this off ?
” Their day-to-day : Hayley Gorbet had a full schedule of work and school before the pandemic hit .
She was pursuing an associate ’ s degree in clinical psychology at the local community college while also working at Applebee ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
She used to leave for her night shift after her husband , who installs heating and air conditioning systems for a living , got home from his day job .
But now that she has been furloughed from Applebee ’ s and her kids are home from school during the pandemic , her focus is looking after them and helping them with remote schoolwork .
Hayley ’ s stepdad has been chipping in with child care occasionally , and her husband ’ s work has been slowing down amid the pandemic so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from child care duties earlier .
How it ’ s going : Life at home is chaotic .
Gorbet had to ask her professor for an extension on an essay , and while she ’ s still attending lectures via Zoom , there are always disruptions from her kids that make it hard to focus .
The biggest challenge : “ It ’ s been hard for me to structure my learning at home , as well as theirs , ” she said .
“ I ’ ve been working on my stuff @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hard getting up in the morning to get them ready .
I hope life goes back to normal because I don ’ t know if I can do all that learning from home.
” What ’ s more , her kids ’ schoolwork has been demanding : One of their teachers recommended spending no more than an hour or two on an assignment , but four and a half hours later , they still hadn ’ t finished it .
And each of their teachers is approaching distance learning slightly differently , with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ others over the education app ClassDojo — it ’ s a lot to keep track of , she says .
“ I woke up this morning and was like , ‘ Oh , my gosh , how am I going to pull this off ?
’ ” she said .
What lifts their spirits : “ We do have a really strong family support system .
My stepdad is looking after my little boys while I ’ m in math class .
And my sister is a teacher in Boise , Idaho , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she has been giving me tips .
We should be reaching out to each other and getting words of encouragement and love .
I think those things help everybody navigate through the situation.
” Alison Wathen and John Herfkens : “ The hill you ’ re willing to die on ” Their day-to-day : When their kids ’ day care closed , Wathen and her husband were in a bind : There was no way they could continue doing their jobs and care full-time for two infants .
Her parents offered to come @ @ @ @ @ @ @ chronic health issues , and Wathen and her husband live in the Chicago area , where cases were rising .
“ We all felt it was safer for us to just go to them , ” Wathen said .
So the couple packed up their belongings and moved in with Wathen ’ s parents in Michigan .
They ’ ve been there about six weeks now — four adults and two babies “ in a small house meant for two , ” Wathen says .
Wathen ’ s mother still works part time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the child care .
Wathen , who ’ s working remotely as a case coordinator for children with disabilities , is able to take a little time every day to give her parents a break .
But her husband , an accounting manager at a medical association , isn ’ t available at all during the day .
Overall , “ it ’ s basically my father doing about 75 percent of the work , ” Wathen said .
How it ’ s going : “ In the words of my father , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with their parents , ” Wathen said .
And moving in with babies is especially difficult — now every parenting decision is a conversation among four people , rather than just two .
“ When you ’ re parenting with your own parents watching , it ’ s a lot harder because you question everything and they question everything , ” Wathen said .
It ’ s hard on her parents , too , both emotionally and physically .
“ They ’ re in their 60s , ” Wathen said .
“ It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ baby for eight hours.
” The biggest challenge : The hardest thing for Wathen and her husband is when they disagree with her parents on a question of baby care .
Then she and her husband have to decide if it ’ s worth it to raise the issue , given that her parents are already doing so much .
It ’ s especially hard because they don ’ t know how much longer they ’ ll be in this situation .
“ If it ’ s just for a week or two @ @ @ @ @ @ @ something that sets up a pattern for the next three months , that could make a huge difference once we go home , if we ever get to go home , ” Wathen said .
“ It just makes it hard to decide what is the hill you ’ re willing to die on.
” What would help : Working less .
Wathen says her brother ’ s employer has given workers the option to work half time so they can take care of kids .
“ If that were something that was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ then we could have taken care of the kids ourselves and not put my parents at risk by going to them , ” Wathen said .
Their day-to-day : In March , Rivera was let go from her job as assistant general manager of a spa .
So now she ’ s at home , guiding her 12-year-old son through his online lessons while taking care of her toddler daughter .
Usually , she lets her son work on his lessons on his own , setting a time frame for him to finish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of her daughter , doing arts and crafts , reading , and speaking in Spanish .
“ I ’ m bilingual , so I ’ m making sure that she also becomes bilingual , ” Rivera said .
Rivera has heard a lot of horror stories about applying for unemployment , and feels fortunate that she was able to get her benefits quickly , meaning she ’ s able to pay the rent .
Now she usually sets aside one day a week to apply for new jobs .
But she needs to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to start until her son is back in school and her daughter is back in day care .
“ I don ’ t want to leave them alone , ” she says .
How it ’ s going : Rivera has homeschooled her son in the past , which she says has made the transition easier .
“ I just remind him every day , it ’ s like how you were doing it before , ” she says .
Still , it can be a challenge supervising his school while taking care @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ wakes up in a really moody situation , and she just wants me to hold her , ” Rivera said .
At those times , “ I just tell my son , you ’ re on our own , you ’ re solo.
” He ’ s fallen behind on his schoolwork at times , but she does her best to keep him on track .
“ I just have to remind him to just keep doing it , finish it up , keep communicating with me , ” she said .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ three.
” The biggest challenge : Online education now isn ’ t like it was when she first homeschooled her son , Rivera says .
That was planned , and this happened suddenly .
And Rivera wants more from her son ’ s teachers .
“ The communication has been lacking a lot , ” she said .
“ I just worry because I don ’ t know if my son ’ s getting the adequate amount of education right now.
” She tries to fill in the gaps and teach him things @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , like how to save and manage money , something she wishes she had learned at an earlier age .
“ Teaching him financial things about life right now , especially because of what ’ s going on , is something that I ’ ve had to reinforce a lot , ” Rivera said .
What lifts their spirits : The whole family does a lot of baking and cooking together .
“ A week ago my daughter was all into birthdays , so I made her a birthday cake with a candle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ even helped a little , and they experimented with different ways of decorating the cake .
Then “ we wished her happy birthday , even though it ’ s not her birthday , ” Rivera said .
“ Just keeping them entertained with different things like that helps the time pass by faster.
” Elizabeth and Lauren Henkel-Lorenz : “ I feel incredibly exhausted all the time ” Their day-to-day : Elizabeth Henkel-Lorenz ’ s workdays at home with her wife , Lauren , and their kids involve a lot of switching off @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wakes up early and does child care from 6 to 9 am while Lauren , a special education administrator , works .
Then Lauren takes care of the kids from 9 until noon .
Then the two-year-old naps while the 5-year-old watches TV .
“ That ’ s probably the most productive time in the house , ” Elizabeth Henkel-Lorenz says .
In the afternoon , the two adults split time based on who has a meeting , and they “ work at night as needed to fill in the blanks , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can be anywhere between one and three hours a night .
How it ’ s going : “ It ’ s really hard , ” Henkel-Lorenz says .
On the one hand , “ it ’ s nice to be with our kids all day , ” she says .
Ordinarily , they ’ re in full-time day care and preschool , and other adults are caring for them many hours a day .
But now , “ it feels like we ’ re their people , ” Henkel-Lorenz says .
But caring @ @ @ @ @ @ @ very challenging : “ I feel incredibly exhausted all the time , ” Henkel-Lorenz says .
Still , she ’ s grateful that she and her wife have been able to find an arrangement that works for them .
“ I have so many friends where the gender divide just was at work ” in the division of pandemic-era domestic labor , she says , with the husband getting to work uninterrupted while the wife handles all the child care on top of her own job .
“ It ’ s been great @ @ @ @ @ @ @ situation like that , ” she said .
The biggest challenge : “ I think wanting to give them the attention that they deserve and not being able to is so hard , ” Henkel-Lorenz says .
“ Everybody ’ s saying to give yourself grace with screen time and TV , but it doesn ’ t feel great to know that for a lot of the day , our daughter ’ s watching much more TV than she normally would.
” What lifts their spirits : The family got a puppy at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has turned out to be more work than the adults bargained for .
But she ’ s “ very cute and the kids really like her , ” Henkel-Lorenz said .
They also have “ Disney princess dinners ” as a family , where everyone dresses up as a Disney princess .
“ We ’ re a big Halloween family , so we have a lot of costumes , ” Henkel-Lorenz says .
“ We do very silly stuff to try and make things feel special.
” Their day-to-day : When schools closed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the Minnock family .
Their son has autism and needs a one-on-one aide for education , and his parents aren ’ t trained to provide that kind of support for him .
His school sent some materials to try to help , James Minnock said , but “ they know and we know that it ’ s just not going to happen.
” With school on hold , Minnock ’ s wife , an adjunct professor , takes care of their son in the mornings .
In the afternoons , she works @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Department of Defense , comes home to do child care .
The family does still get visits from state-provided caregivers to give Minnock and his wife a break , he said .
But other than that , “ we just basically split-shift everything , and one or the other of us has to be actively taking care of him at any time.
” How it ’ s going : Minnock says “ it ’ s a blessing ” that he ’ s still working outside the home .
He ’ s not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doing a good job of monitoring the risks .
Moreover , “ because I am ‘ super-fun dad , ’ if I am home , I don ’ t get to work , ” he says .
“ If I had to telework , I would just have to quit.
” He is worried about how his son will react when he finally goes back to school .
Right now , Minnock says , “ I think he thinks that he ’ s done.
” The biggest challenge : A lot of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aren ’ t possible right now due to the lockdown .
“ He would go to the pool , he would go to splash pads , ” Minnock said .
“ All that ’ s been stripped away.
” Minnock was very worried when he heard that California might close all beaches .
“ That was our last thing , ” he said .
“ That ’ s where I take him every day.
” Change is hard for Minnock ’ s son , and it ’ s been especially difficult to deal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ during the pandemic .
“ I ’ d rather do all the changes at once so that we can figure out how to get him through the day , ” Minnock said .
“ Continually reacting to new things being shut down is just drawing out the agony.
” What would help : Minnock said he wishes state officials had given families a clearer idea of what would be shut down and for how long .
If they had known how severe restrictions were going to be beforehand , the Minnocks might have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ family and more options for helping their son .
As things stand , “ we don ’ t know when it ’ s going to shut down or when it ’ s going to start back up , so we ’ re not getting the information we need.
” Joshua Martin and Stacy McCall-Martin : “ She ’ s giving up her life to be here ” Their day-to-day : When the pandemic hit , “ it was really tough to take in that our children are not going to be in school @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , he ordinarily works at an outpatient clinic but was reassigned to a hospital as cases of Covid-19 began to spike in Southern California .
His wife , a therapist who treats teenagers , can work remotely but can ’ t care for their kids at the same time .
Now that cases where he lives have stabilized somewhat , Martin is no longer in the hospital — he spends most of his time performing wellness checks on older people in the community , making sure they are taking their medications and are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
That work takes place by phone , but he still has to go to the clinic to do it , meaning he ’ s out the door by 7:30 most mornings .
He also takes an online chemistry class three nights a week .
But luckily , Martin ’ s mother-in-law was able to move in with the couple to care for the children while they work .
She supervises all the kids ’ online schooling and even has some experience in preschool education , which is especially helpful for the 4-year-old @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and lucky to have her , ” Martin said .
How it ’ s going : At first , Martin worried about bringing the virus home and infecting his mother-in-law , who is over 60 .
But he ’ s been taking a lot of precautions : For example , when he gets home , he always showers and changes clothes before spending time with his family .
“ Knock on wood , no one has gotten sick here , ” he said .
Emotionally , Martin says , “ everyone is doing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at first because his mother-in-law likes to have the kids on a strict schedule , while he tends to be more free-form .
But they adapted to his mother-in-law ’ s preference , he said : “ Because she ’ s there , we want her to be comfortable.
” The biggest challenge : One of the hardest things about their new situation was that Martin and his wife wanted to pay his mother-in-law for her help but weren ’ t able to afford very much .
Luckily , a child care stipend @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a little money for payment .
“ She ’ s giving up her life to be here and help us , and at least she ’ s somewhat compensated , ” Martin said .
But she ’ s probably still making less than minimum wage , he said .
What lifts their spirits : Martin and his wife are both taking time for self-care when they can .
For him , that means video games , since golf courses are closed .
For her , it ’ s crafts — she even decorated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this year , “ just so she can always remember this time , ” Martin said .
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Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
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A single mom homeschooling her preteen while caring for her toddler. Another mom managing both her child’s school schedule and her own. Two parents splitting their workdays in half to take care of their son.
With tens of thousands of schools, as well as numerous day care centers, closed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, millions of families around the country have stories like these: stories of how they make their lives work when their kids are suddenly home all day, every day. For some, it’s been a time to connect in a new way as a family. “It’s nice to be with our kids all day,” one mom told Vox.
But for many parents, it’s still really, really hard. Moms and dads have become teachers, expected to supervise a totally new form of school for most kids — online learning — often with no training. If they’re working from home, parents are trying to juggle child care with Zoom meetings and projects, sometimes working hours every night to make up for lost time during the day. “I feel incredibly exhausted all the time,” one mom said.
If they’re working outside the home in health care or other essential jobs, parents are finding care for their kids with family members, at emergency centers, or with groups that have sprung up in recent weeks to support frontline workers.
But even with help, these workers are facing a lot of anxiety. One dad, a nurse, told Vox he’s worried about bringing Covid-19 home and infecting his mother-in-law, who is caring for his kids. Meanwhile, for the millions of American parents who are unemployed right now, the days are often spent taking care of children while trying to get a new job or file for unemployment.
With most Americans still under shelter-in-place orders, the experience of parenting during the pandemic can be isolating, and it’s easy to wonder whether everyone else is somehow managing better than you are. To break through the isolation a bit, Vox spoke to six parents about how they structure their days, what their challenges are, what makes things a little easier, and what they need right now. Their stories — of stress, sleeplessness, and sometimes moments of joy — are below.
Hayley Gorbet and Philip Scott Gorbet: “How am I going to pull this off?”
Reno, Nevada
Three children, ages 5, 8, and 11
Their day-to-day: Hayley Gorbet had a full schedule of work and school before the pandemic hit. She was pursuing an associate’s degree in clinical psychology at the local community college while also working at Applebee’s at night and occasionally shopping for Instacart. She used to leave for her night shift after her husband, who installs heating and air conditioning systems for a living, got home from his day job.
But now that she has been furloughed from Applebee’s and her kids are home from school during the pandemic, her focus is looking after them and helping them with remote schoolwork. Hayley’s stepdad has been chipping in with child care occasionally, and her husband’s work has been slowing down amid the pandemic so he has been able to relieve her from child care duties earlier.
How it’s going: Life at home is chaotic. Gorbet had to ask her professor for an extension on an essay, and while she’s still attending lectures via Zoom, there are always disruptions from her kids that make it hard to focus.
The biggest challenge: “It’s been hard for me to structure my learning at home, as well as theirs,” she said. “I’ve been working on my stuff late at night, which has been hard getting up in the morning to get them ready. I hope life goes back to normal because I don’t know if I can do all that learning from home.”
What’s more, her kids’ schoolwork has been demanding: One of their teachers recommended spending no more than an hour or two on an assignment, but four and a half hours later, they still hadn’t finished it. And each of their teachers is approaching distance learning slightly differently, with some communicating with parents over email and others over the education app ClassDojo — it’s a lot to keep track of, she says.
“I woke up this morning and was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, how am I going to pull this off?’” she said.
What lifts their spirits: “We do have a really strong family support system. My stepdad is looking after my little boys while I’m in math class. And my sister is a teacher in Boise, Idaho, and she teaches fourth grade, so she has been giving me tips. We should be reaching out to each other and getting words of encouragement and love. I think those things help everybody navigate through the situation.”
Alison Wathen and John Herfkens: “The hill you’re willing to die on”
Kalamazoo, Michigan
4-month-old twins
Their day-to-day: When their kids’ day care closed, Wathen and her husband were in a bind: There was no way they could continue doing their jobs and care full-time for two infants. Her parents offered to come and help, but they both have chronic health issues, and Wathen and her husband live in the Chicago area, where cases were rising. “We all felt it was safer for us to just go to them,” Wathen said.
So the couple packed up their belongings and moved in with Wathen’s parents in Michigan. They’ve been there about six weeks now — four adults and two babies “in a small house meant for two,” Wathen says.
Wathen’s mother still works part time, so her father does most of the child care. Wathen, who’s working remotely as a case coordinator for children with disabilities, is able to take a little time every day to give her parents a break. But her husband, an accounting manager at a medical association, isn’t available at all during the day. Overall, “it’s basically my father doing about 75 percent of the work,” Wathen said.
How it’s going: “In the words of my father, no one wants to move back in with their parents,” Wathen said. And moving in with babies is especially difficult — now every parenting decision is a conversation among four people, rather than just two. “When you’re parenting with your own parents watching, it’s a lot harder because you question everything and they question everything,” Wathen said.
It’s hard on her parents, too, both emotionally and physically. “They’re in their 60s,” Wathen said. “It’s not easy to bounce a baby for eight hours.”
The biggest challenge: The hardest thing for Wathen and her husband is when they disagree with her parents on a question of baby care. Then she and her husband have to decide if it’s worth it to raise the issue, given that her parents are already doing so much. It’s especially hard because they don’t know how much longer they’ll be in this situation.
“If it’s just for a week or two, okay, but if this is something that sets up a pattern for the next three months, that could make a huge difference once we go home, if we ever get to go home,” Wathen said. “It just makes it hard to decide what is the hill you’re willing to die on.”
What would help: Working less. Wathen says her brother’s employer has given workers the option to work half time so they can take care of kids. “If that were something that was available to my husband and I, then we could have taken care of the kids ourselves and not put my parents at risk by going to them,” Wathen said.
Lyzbeth Rivera: “It’s just us three”
San Francisco, California
Two kids, ages 3 and 12
Their day-to-day: In March, Rivera was let go from her job as assistant general manager of a spa. So now she’s at home, guiding her 12-year-old son through his online lessons while taking care of her toddler daughter.
Usually, she lets her son work on his lessons on his own, setting a time frame for him to finish them. Then she can take care of her daughter, doing arts and crafts, reading, and speaking in Spanish. “I’m bilingual, so I’m making sure that she also becomes bilingual,” Rivera said.
Rivera has heard a lot of horror stories about applying for unemployment, and feels fortunate that she was able to get her benefits quickly, meaning she’s able to pay the rent. Now she usually sets aside one day a week to apply for new jobs. But she needs to find one that will wait for her to start until her son is back in school and her daughter is back in day care. “I don’t want to leave them alone,” she says.
How it’s going: Rivera has homeschooled her son in the past, which she says has made the transition easier. “I just remind him every day, it’s like how you were doing it before,” she says.
Still, it can be a challenge supervising his school while taking care of her daughter. Sometimes the 3-year-old “wakes up in a really moody situation, and she just wants me to hold her,” Rivera said. At those times, “I just tell my son, you’re on our own, you’re solo.”
He’s fallen behind on his schoolwork at times, but she does her best to keep him on track. “I just have to remind him to just keep doing it, finish it up, keep communicating with me,” she said. “Because it’s just us three.”
The biggest challenge: Online education now isn’t like it was when she first homeschooled her son, Rivera says. That was planned, and this happened suddenly. And Rivera wants more from her son’s teachers. “The communication has been lacking a lot,” she said. “I just worry because I don’t know if my son’s getting the adequate amount of education right now.”
She tries to fill in the gaps and teach him things he doesn’t learn in school, like how to save and manage money, something she wishes she had learned at an earlier age. “Teaching him financial things about life right now, especially because of what’s going on, is something that I’ve had to reinforce a lot,” Rivera said.
What lifts their spirits: The whole family does a lot of baking and cooking together. “A week ago my daughter was all into birthdays, so I made her a birthday cake with a candle,” Rivera said. Her daughter even helped a little, and they experimented with different ways of decorating the cake.
Then “we wished her happy birthday, even though it’s not her birthday,” Rivera said. “Just keeping them entertained with different things like that helps the time pass by faster.”
Elizabeth and Lauren Henkel-Lorenz: “I feel incredibly exhausted all the time”
Maplewood, New Jersey
Two daughters, ages 2 and 5
Their day-to-day: Elizabeth Henkel-Lorenz’s workdays at home with her wife, Lauren, and their kids involve a lot of switching off. Elizabeth, a curriculum developer, wakes up early and does child care from 6 to 9 am while Lauren, a special education administrator, works. Then Lauren takes care of the kids from 9 until noon. Then the 2-year-old naps while the 5-year-old watches TV. “That’s probably the most productive time in the house,” Elizabeth Henkel-Lorenz says.
In the afternoon, the two adults split time based on who has a meeting, and they “work at night as needed to fill in the blanks,” Henkel-Lorenz says. For her, that can be anywhere between one and three hours a night.
How it’s going: “It’s really hard,” Henkel-Lorenz says.
On the one hand, “it’s nice to be with our kids all day,” she says. Ordinarily, they’re in full-time day care and preschool, and other adults are caring for them many hours a day. But now, “it feels like we’re their people,” Henkel-Lorenz says. But caring for them while working full time is very challenging: “I feel incredibly exhausted all the time,” Henkel-Lorenz says.
Still, she’s grateful that she and her wife have been able to find an arrangement that works for them. “I have so many friends where the gender divide just was at work” in the division of pandemic-era domestic labor, she says, with the husband getting to work uninterrupted while the wife handles all the child care on top of her own job. “It’s been great that we don’t have a situation like that,” she said.
The biggest challenge: “I think wanting to give them the attention that they deserve and not being able to is so hard,” Henkel-Lorenz says. “Everybody’s saying to give yourself grace with screen time and TV, but it doesn’t feel great to know that for a lot of the day, our daughter’s watching much more TV than she normally would.”
What lifts their spirits: The family got a puppy at the beginning of the pandemic, which has turned out to be more work than the adults bargained for. But she’s “very cute and the kids really like her,” Henkel-Lorenz said.
They also have “Disney princess dinners” as a family, where everyone dresses up as a Disney princess. “We’re a big Halloween family, so we have a lot of costumes,” Henkel-Lorenz says. “We do very silly stuff to try and make things feel special.”
James and Kristel Minnock: “We just basically split-shift everything”
Oxnard, California
One child, age 12
Their day-to-day: When schools closed, it had an especially big impact on the Minnock family. Their son has autism and needs a one-on-one aide for education, and his parents aren’t trained to provide that kind of support for him. His school sent some materials to try to help, James Minnock said, but “they know and we know that it’s just not going to happen.”
With school on hold, Minnock’s wife, an adjunct professor, takes care of their son in the mornings. In the afternoons, she works remotely and Minnock, who works for the Department of Defense, comes home to do child care.
The family does still get visits from state-provided caregivers to give Minnock and his wife a break, he said. But other than that, “we just basically split-shift everything, and one or the other of us has to be actively taking care of him at any time.”
How it’s going: Minnock says “it’s a blessing” that he’s still working outside the home. He’s not worried about Covid-19 because his workplace is doing a good job of monitoring the risks. Moreover, “because I am ‘super-fun dad,’ if I am home, I don’t get to work,” he says. “If I had to telework, I would just have to quit.”
He is worried about how his son will react when he finally goes back to school. Right now, Minnock says, “I think he thinks that he’s done.”
The biggest challenge: A lot of the activities that helped Minnock’s son aren’t possible right now due to the lockdown. “He would go to the pool, he would go to splash pads,” Minnock said. “All that’s been stripped away.”
Minnock was very worried when he heard that California might close all beaches. “That was our last thing,” he said. “That’s where I take him every day.”
Change is hard for Minnock’s son, and it’s been especially difficult to deal with the many incremental changes to restrictions during the pandemic. “I’d rather do all the changes at once so that we can figure out how to get him through the day,” Minnock said. “Continually reacting to new things being shut down is just drawing out the agony.”
What would help: Minnock said he wishes state officials had given families a clearer idea of what would be shut down and for how long. If they had known how severe restrictions were going to be beforehand, the Minnocks might have moved to a state where they have family and more options for helping their son. As things stand, “we don’t know when it’s going to shut down or when it’s going to start back up, so we’re not getting the information we need.”
Joshua Martin and Stacy McCall-Martin: “She’s giving up her life to be here”
Stanton, California
Three kids, ages 4, 9, and 11
Their day-to-day: When the pandemic hit, “it was really tough to take in that our children are not going to be in school,” Martin said. A nurse, he ordinarily works at an outpatient clinic but was reassigned to a hospital as cases of Covid-19 began to spike in Southern California. His wife, a therapist who treats teenagers, can work remotely but can’t care for their kids at the same time.
Now that cases where he lives have stabilized somewhat, Martin is no longer in the hospital — he spends most of his time performing wellness checks on older people in the community, making sure they are taking their medications and are up to date on their lab tests. That work takes place by phone, but he still has to go to the clinic to do it, meaning he’s out the door by 7:30 most mornings. He also takes an online chemistry class three nights a week.
But luckily, Martin’s mother-in-law was able to move in with the couple to care for the children while they work. She supervises all the kids’ online schooling and even has some experience in preschool education, which is especially helpful for the 4-year-old. “We’ve been blessed and lucky to have her,” Martin said.
How it’s going: At first, Martin worried about bringing the virus home and infecting his mother-in-law, who is over 60. But he’s been taking a lot of precautions: For example, when he gets home, he always showers and changes clothes before spending time with his family. “Knock on wood, no one has gotten sick here,” he said.
Emotionally, Martin says, “everyone is doing pretty well.” It took some adjustment at first because his mother-in-law likes to have the kids on a strict schedule, while he tends to be more free-form. But they adapted to his mother-in-law’s preference, he said: “Because she’s there, we want her to be comfortable.”
The biggest challenge: One of the hardest things about their new situation was that Martin and his wife wanted to pay his mother-in-law for her help but weren’t able to afford very much. Luckily, a child care stipend program for essential workers gives the family a little money for payment. “She’s giving up her life to be here and help us, and at least she’s somewhat compensated,” Martin said. But she’s probably still making less than minimum wage, he said.
What lifts their spirits: Martin and his wife are both taking time for self-care when they can. For him, that means video games, since golf courses are closed. For her, it’s crafts — she even decorated a face mask to commemorate her birthday this year, “just so she can always remember this time,” Martin said.