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Is Bacon Going Up? Or is it just Hype?
serf
Member Posts: 9,217 ✭✭✭✭
Is Pork along with Food shortages coming? Don't tell them in California,they have enough worries already!
serf
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/global-authorities-brace-for-a-worldwide-protein-shortage-as-one-quarter-of-earths-pigs-have-been-wiped-out
African Swine Fever is killing millions upon millions of pigs all over the world, and this threatens to create a crippling global shortage of protein as we head into 2020. This epidemic began in China last year, and it is now also running wild in North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and the Philippines. But this crisis is certainly not limited to Asia. According to the Washington Post, so far in 2019 there have also been outbreaks ?in Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Russia and Ukraine.? Overall, cases of African Swine Fever have been documented ?in nearly 50 nations?, and U.S. pork producers are extremely concerned that it could start spreading here too.
serf
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/global-authorities-brace-for-a-worldwide-protein-shortage-as-one-quarter-of-earths-pigs-have-been-wiped-out
African Swine Fever is killing millions upon millions of pigs all over the world, and this threatens to create a crippling global shortage of protein as we head into 2020. This epidemic began in China last year, and it is now also running wild in North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and the Philippines. But this crisis is certainly not limited to Asia. According to the Washington Post, so far in 2019 there have also been outbreaks ?in Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Russia and Ukraine.? Overall, cases of African Swine Fever have been documented ?in nearly 50 nations?, and U.S. pork producers are extremely concerned that it could start spreading here too.
Comments
And for what it's worth- pork production in the US has gone up every year except 2016. Last year the US produced about 26.3 BILLION pounds of pork. If nobody can afford to raise swine, there's a lot of people getting in line at the bankruptcy court.
And I just caught some bacon on sale yesterday. Pass me those hash browns, would you?
The USDA says we export 26% of pork production and that is out of a total of 110 or so million hogs a year. The 80 million or so that are left over have to be going to domestic consumption. Yes I can see you making a profit on futures if other major markets like China or Europe have lost a lot of their production due to disease. Scarcity does have a tendency to raise prices a bit. We are competing with the foreign markets for our own domestic production. Bob
When we lose the breadbasket farming here in Northern America we will be in deep trouble. Speculators will not be a honest profession then.I would be more incognito here. The internet is kept forever in Google land.
serf
Lkannes an probably elaborate, he?s been working in packing houses in western Iowa for decades. There?s no shortage of hogs here.
Smithfield (a large vertically integrated pork producer for those uninformed) has allocated approx 60% of current and future production to a huge sale to China.
Most certainly, taking this much product out of the domestic market may affect the prices here. I don't know what Orientals do with pork bellies but it must pay better than selling bacon to Americans.
"Last year the US produced about 26.3 BILLION pounds of pork. If nobody can afford to raise swine, there's a lot of people getting in line at the bankruptcy court."
The profit in pork is in large numbers and vertical integration. The only "small hog operations" these days are "niche" markets. I have a neighbor who runs 25-40 sows and raises butcher hogs on dirt in the sunshine. The only way he stays afloat is by marketing direct to consumers who will pay more than market price to avoid supporting "mega-farms".
What's going up is avocados. I hear even the cartels are diversifying in to avocado toast (I imagine they're avocado on toast?) not that I had that silliness.
Coming from Amish Farms in PA.
I've got 3 packages in the freezer and one I'm using in omelette in the morning.
Keeping the Bacon Grease , to touch up some goodies.
When this first started happening, I grabbed several pounds of the cheap bacon thinking I could even come back during the week for more to stock the freezer. The next morning it was eggs with a full pound pile of bacon (minus grease) on a platter and I was drooling in my coffee! That was until I took the first bite of bacon. It had enough salt in it to melt the ice on my driveway!! I couldn't even see myself feeding it to my dogs for treats. No more cheap bacon for me!
we have a wholesale place that sells off the wall brands along with some name brands. they sell kunzler by the 10# box for $36.00
This sliced Bacon is exactly what Bacon should be, affordable, bought a pound a few days ago. $3.58 16 oz.
https://grocery.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Thick-Sliced-Natural-Hickory-Smoked-Bacon-16-Oz/44391087
A couple of Southeastern states with large growing operations store liquid pig waste in huge ponds, some of which were breeched by heavy rains last summer. Smithfield has moved it's largest processing plant to Mexico, where there are no restrictions on waste. The Chinese government dumps waste wherever they want, no one dares complain.
Neal
They store it in huge silos around here.
And now that crops are out, they load it up in semi ?honey wagons? and take it out to fields, where they hook the wagon on the back of a huge tractor with a plow with injecting knives, and cut it into the fields for fertilizer.
The smell is, well, not good.
Sounds good on paper, but they can?t get any investors.