China’s Pork Prices Soar, Adding to Beijing’s Troubles

Weren’t food prices (driven up by drought) one of the significant contributors to the Syrian Civil War and Arab Spring? Hope the pork shortage in China doesn’t have the same effect. Wouldn’t it be nice if Messers Trump and Xi could get reasonable and solve their disagreements on trade. That would be a win - win. Then we could write something nice about them.

The Chinese have alternate sources of protein, just not ‘freshwater fish’ because fresh, clean water does not exist anymore in China. Maybe they could become even more assertive in the South and East China seas, pushing out and again ramming the fishing boats the Japanese, Filipinos and Taiwanese. Then there are the hundreds of thousands of dogs and cats grilled at dog meat festivals in China. Hide your pets from state-run roundups.

This is a very interesting development, and it will be even more interesting to see how Xi deals with it. There is already a lot of unrest in China, and the unrest in Hong Kong lets the Chinese people know that the government can be challenged. When food prices soar, unrest certainly follows, and the Chinese government can be opposed if that unrest becomes strong enough. Xi needs to watch out or he may find himself removed from office.

But the worst thing I heard so far is many local hog farmers buried their hogs ALIVE .At first I couldn’t believe the brutality but there are videos. My hairdresser also acknowledged it, saying it also happened in a village around her hometown in Anhui province. I think these farmers believed this is the cheapest, most efficient way to get rid of all the pigs.

I would suggest Beyond Meat or possibly“the Impossible Burger”

Since the arrival of the swine flu pork disappeared here in Hunan province, only governments inspected allowed on the market, but now see butchers offering pork again as Middle Autumn Festival nears (gov’t stocks ?). Pig was a major American export, heavily criticized by environmentalists due to effects on local water supplies of accumulated waste. Here Trump’s trade war having curious effects. China would love to see that pork again.

China controls the tariffs it collects. And the television, radio and nearly all printed news. They can simply buy pork on the world market or from Chinese owned companies like Smithfield and waive the import duties because it is for their strategic pork reserve. Alternatively collect the tariffs and rebate them to the government entities buying the pork. That is similar to what they do to keep export prices so low isn't it, giving rebates that constitute most of the producer's profits?

China owns Smithfield Foods here in US. Start shipping all of that pork to China instead of US markets.

China (and China owned companies like Smithfield) are responsible for the most massive torture of animals on the planet by "producing" pork on their factory farms. I'll be glad when humans die out as a species and the animals take over.

I hope they aren't trying to hide the epidemic from the people. I suspect people will be unhappy but understand the problem if there is complete transparency. Meanwhile imports might help Canadian. and EU and even Russian pork would help and be tariff free.

The image of a cart being loaded with pork looks less than sanitary. Makes me wonder about meat production in general. How much oversight is there, really? Less and less, I gather, as demand rises. There have been many complaints from workers here in the US about lack of inspections and being forced to rush - to the point of butchering hogs with festering wounds.

The Wall Street Journal has an article that stated that the official statistics from China are much like Stalin’s production figures. Not to be believed. The problem is probably a little worse than reported. Do they have unemployment compensation and food stamps? It takes time and for years we have been exploited and wonder why we have income inequality and expect this to resolve overnight. We continued to buy small Buick SUV’s which were made in China not Detroit. UAW employees are a fraction of previous numbers and our tariffs to bring them into China were higher than to let them into the US. Fair? Certainly automation has had its toll, but we make quality BMW and Honda cars here which we can’t export there without tariffs.

China also blocked Canadian pork a few months ago.

So eat less pork and more veggies! It’s good for your health and good for the planet. Blessing in disguise.

China also stopped importing Canadian pork as part of its trade war with Canada for arresting a Huawei VP for extradition to the US on charges of violating the Iran trade embargo.

So, NYT and China-supporting commentators who are very frequent and loud on the so-called trade-war front, remember this next time you stand by China in this dispute: “But what they neglect to say is that it is the people who are bearing the brunt of the pain.” as opposed to you who can be loud and clear in accusing Trump for all things happening on that front.

And Beijing slapped tariffs on imports of US pork. Really teaching those Americans a lesson! . Let them eat cake, seems apt here. Nobody's going without pork in Zhongnanhai.

700 million pigs a year .... That’s twice the population of the United States .... If pigs were people, it would mean the slaughter of every man, woman and child in the US every six months. While this article was about pork prices, this one statistic hit me hard and made me very, very sad. So much cruelty, suffering and death that we human beings impose upon other living things.

Its the year of the pig 2019. Of course pork prices are gonna soar.

I have an immediate three-step solution: 1. raise consciousness, 2. set the pigs free, and 3. stop eating meat.

It will be difficult to keep African swine fever from infecting the US and rest of the world. It is only a matter of time.

Ugh..seriously, must people NEED to eat pigs or ANY animals for that matter?!?!?! It's not a life or death situation if there are no murdered animals to eat. Goodness...poor intelligent animals.

With food prices in China up 10% in the past year and a commodity so crucial to the Chinese diet that they have "strategic reserves" 50% higher in price than a year ago, "imposing extra taxes on American products including soybeans, pork, seafood and crude oil" doesn't sound like a very good idea. Xi can claim that China can "tolerate any pain and repercussions from the trade conflict” but when over a billion of his country men and women start leaving their dinner tables hungry the claim will ring as hollow as his peoples stomachs. Especially when his appears to be quite full.

I raised hogs most of my life and this disease has nothing to do with how they are raised. It is spread in a number of ways and population density is not a factor. I have no experience with it nor does anyone in North America. One of my daughters is the Director of Communications for the National Pork Board. I asked her how can it be contained? Her initial reaction was that the Chinese would have to burn the barns down. What the Chinese have chosen to do is empty the buildings. wash them down and disinfect them, then let the buildings stand idle for a calendar year. Some may have been converted to raise chicken, but I don't know much about that. The Chinese raise a lot of their hogs in multi-story buildings. The problems with a system like that will require a huge effort. There are so many small places that can be missed when washing and disinfecting. I don't know how long the bacteria can survive without a host, but no one is 100% sure that cleaning and idling will work. It is believed to have started in the wild hog population of Russia. Belgium had a problem with feral hogs but has been able to contain it using the military with night vision. It would be nice if American Pork Producers could supply China with pork but the retaliatory tariffs that China placed on American pork.

An attitude of urgency? What they need is thoughts and prayers!

The Chinese official quoted is incorrect. It is not the pork that will make its people fat. It is the processed carbohydrates - bread, noodles, sugar, combined with rice starch that raises insulin and fattens people. Animal protein and fat doesn’t spike insulin and blood glucose. Both drive fat storage. China has an epidemic of diabetes and obesity, the result of changing its focus from vegetables, protein and dietary fats to processed carbohydrates.

Modern agricultural methods are not capable of keeping up with this epidemic as influenza spread rapidly in hog "farm factories." A more humane and holistic approach is warranted.

Imported pork may go up from 3% to 10% of the market "over the next few years" as a result of the swine fever, the Financial Times writes today; that's a small change. So the "national crisis" and "attitude of urgency" need to be put in perspective.