If you thought the toilet paper shortage was bad, just wait. Meat may be next in America.

【小题1】, John H. Tyson, chairman of the board of Tyson Foods, warned that the COVID-19 pandemic is forcing the company to shut all the stores across the country.

“This means one thing,” he wrote. “【小题2】 As pork, beef, and chicken plants are being forced to close, even for short periods of time, millions of pounds of meat will disappear from the supply chain.”

The ripple effect will make its way to consumers, Tyson noted, as “There will be limited supply of our products available in grocery stores until we are able to reopen our facilities that are currently closed.”

The Tyson plant in Waterloo, Iowa, was one that closed, having been linked to 182 cases of the coronavirus, which is nearly half the entire county's total. In addition to that facility, pork processing plants for Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and JBS in Worthington, Minnesota, also closed indefinitely earlier this April.【小题3】

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported record-high red meat, beef, and pork production in March. However, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, representatives of more than 250,000 industry workers, slaughter(屠宰) capacity is trending down 25% for pork and 10% for beef as 13 plants have closed. 【小题4】

In a report, Julie Niederhoff, an associate professor of supply chain management at Syracuse University, was optimistic. “We’re not going to run out of food. 【小题5】”

Also, Niederhoff claimed that the state of the food chain remains enough, despite shortage of a particular brand or type of food.

Starting in early January, 15-year-old Abby Gagne spent some weekends walking through snow in the 330 acres of woods around her house “tapping” trees. Abby’s family are sugar makers. For five generations, her family have collected sap from maple trees. They boil it down into the thick sweet syrup that North Americans love to apply on their pancakes.

Abby’s dad, Jason drills holes 1.5 inches deep into the trunks of maples in the woods. Sugar makers tap only older trees. These are usually at least 40 years old and 10 inches thick at chest height. They stick a tap into each hole, usually one per tree. Taps made of plastic are used for sap to flow through. They will come out at the end of the season, and the holes will return to health.

Plastic tubes hook up to the taps and connect them to one another. The sap flows into a collection tank in the woods. From the collection tank, the Gagnes pump the sap into a ma-chine to remove a lot of the sap’s water.Then it’s moved into an evaporator in a building called “sugar house”. The Gagnes make a fire out of maple wood chips. The fire heats the sap and boils it. When it reaches 219 degrees, the syrup is ready to be made.

Syrup is poured into glass or plastic bottles. But 150 years ago, sugar makers used tin cans. These containers could prevent syrup from seeping out and allowed them to ship it far from home and helped maple become a big business.

Sugar makers should thank native Americans for their knowledge. White settlers as early as 1600s learned the craft from the Ojibwe and other tribes. Early native techniques were similar to those sugar makers use now except that they collected sap in bark bowls before boiling it over an open fire. Either way, the resulting maple syrup was, and is tasty.

Slurp&Sip is a cheerful bistro (小酒馆) in Shanghai that specializes in exotic southwestern food from Yunnan Province.

Niu Yun, who hails from Kunming, Yunnan Province, opened her first eatery (小餐馆) in 2014 after studying in London.

“At that time there weren’t many choices for Yunnan food, and I think the province has so much tasty food and such a diverse food culture that I could bring to Shanghai,” she said. “After meeting a few good friends who also love Yunnan cuisine, we decided to open a simple Yunnan eatery focusing on street food to start with, introducing Yunnan rice noodles and street snacks I used to buy every day after school.”

Opening this new restaurant after operating Slurp for a few years is a natural step for Niu Yun and her partners. The menu of Slurp&Sip pays homage (敬意) to Niu’s origins with a major focus on Dai flavors.

“My mum is Dai, and I remember every time she brought me back to her hometown the food really made a strong impression. From how they cook and the ingredients they use, all are very special to me. Dai food is all about fresh and mixed ingredients, as well as natural and original ways of cooking,” she said.

“I feel diners shouldn’t only know about crossing the bridge rice noodles and steampot chicken when we talk about Yunnan food. We have such a diverse culture with so many different minorities, so I decided to start with the one I’m the most connected with,” she added.

Dai cuisine is characterized by a combination of fresh herbs, chilis and acidic elements. It incorporates lots of great produce from the province’s southernmost prefecture.

Dai food is also full of barbecue items often seen in night markets, such as roasted lemongrass stuffed fish, roasted chicken and roasted pork with Dai spices, all of which grace Slurp&Sip’s menu.