One of my favorite summer hobbies is grilling outdoors.

Several years ago, my kids got me a Kingsford charcoal grill. I can cook 18 large hamburgers at one time. That comes in handy when we have company in the summer.

But it’s not much fun when you don’t have meat.

I have cooked vegetables and desserts on my grill. I like to cook onions and sometimes I will grill pineapple slices or bake cinnamon apples. That could change this summer.

Thanks to the Chinese coronavirus, some of the biggest meat processing plants in the United States are greatly affected. That’s right. These plants, where workers must work right next to each other, have become hotbeds of infection.

More than 20 beef, chicken and pork processing plants have been closed at least temporarily..

About 900 workers at a Tyson Food facility in Indiana tested positive. Reports in early May said 890 of the 2,200 workers there were infected. So, Tyson closed the plant for awhile.

About half a million Americans work in meat processing plants. About 5,000 workers in 115 plants in 19 states have positive tests for coronavirus.

In late April, President Trump signed an executive order under the Defense Production Act that requires meat packing plants to stay open during the pandemic.

Here’s the crux of the problem. America has plenty of livestock but there is a lot involved in getting meat from the farm or ranch to the dinner table.

The food supply chain is under assault by a virus from a foreign nation.

Raising cattle, chicken and hogs is a big business. When those animals are ready for slaughter, they need to go. If they can’t be sold, the farmer has limited choices. He can keep them and feed them but that cuts deeply into profits. Cattle can be held back longer than pigs or chickens.

So, farmers who can’t get their animals to the processing plants are euthanizing them. Milk farmers are dumping milk.

Americans are emptying grocery shelves as fast as they can while animals are being destroyed. And this is all because workers at processing plants are sick. (It’s not the fault of the workers, by the way.)

I am amazed when I go to Sam’s Club these days. I have been a member at Sam’s Club since 1988 and one of the reasons that we shop there is because we like to buy in bulk to save money.  Now, you have limits on how much meat you can buy at a time. And if you don’t get to Sam’s early in the morning, they may be out of chicken or hamburger.

We shop at the Reasor’s Grocery at 71st Street and Sheridan Road. Reasor’s has always had really good sales on meat almost on a monthly basis.

Reasor’s temporarily closed their fresh meat counter. They still have meat, but not nearly as much.

And here’s a simple lesson in economics – when supply goes down and demand goes up, price go up.

I am expecting higher meat prices this summer. Because we live in Oklahoma, a major cattle producer, and because we live near Northwest Arkansas, a major chicken producer, I feel confident we will put meat on the table this summer. It’s just going to cost more and there won’t be as much of a variety.

I have some friends who have purchased cattle and had them butchered because they are worried about shortages. Some of them have giant freezers in their homes so they can supply meat and other frozen foods to their families.

One lesson everyone should learn from the coronavirus is to keep some food in the cupboard. It’s amazing to me how many folks – especially young people – can’t even go a day or two without running out of food.

Our church, First Baptist of Broken Arrow, collects food to distribute to needy folks. They keep running out of certain foods because the need is great. When we got our stimulus checks, we went to Sam’s to pick up some of the items on their list to donate.

It’s hard to find Del Monte canned green beans these days. And last time I checked, Sam’s was out of Vienna Sausages.

I understand the panic buying that first occurred when the Chinese coronavirus hit. We keep a good pantry but we added some canned goods and other supplies when we saw that there was going to be a run on the grocery stores.

But it is startling to go into Sam’s Club or Reasor’s now and see so many partially empty or empty shelves.

We Americans are used to seeing fully loaded groceries. It’s unusual to watch produce sections shrink and to hear grocers talk about anxiously waiting for the next truckload of food.

We have an extra refrigerator in our garage and we have saved some hamburger, pork and chicken. Hopefully, we can still buy that meat at a reasonable price this summer.

I really want to grill some meat.