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Is Bacon Going Up? Or is it just Hype?

serfserf Member Posts: 9,217 ✭✭✭✭
edited October 2019 in General Discussion
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.

Comments

  • toad67toad67 Member Posts: 13,008 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Here come the Muslims...?? Remember, these are people that we all need to be tolerant about, and accept.. The one's who say that Christmas trees and related items, are offensive because they are religious symbols of a religion that is not one that they believe in, and are offensive.. Oh, but have them remove any of the religious garb that they are wearing... IMO, war of the worlds is closer than one thinks..
  • 11b6r11b6r Member Posts: 16,584 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I blame any shortage of bacon on all the fast food burger joints that have suddenly discovered that a bacon cheeseburger is the food of the gods.
    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?
  • JimmyJackJimmyJack Member Posts: 5,515 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    LOL You should also invest in wind instruments the way you like to blow your own horn!
  • BobJudyBobJudy Member Posts: 6,671 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    GreatGuns wrote:
    Well, considering we made a little over $50K this past year investing in "Lean Hogs and Pork Bellies," I'm clearly a novice on this subject. ;) :P

    Jim

    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
  • serfserf Member Posts: 9,217 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    GreatGuns wrote:
    Yes, prices are increasing. It will likely hit a point shortly that will all but destroy the future in pork products (and it's been coming for some time). When the US began importing swine to fill our market needs, the greed outweighed comprehension of what was to come. Most pork consumed in the US does not come from the US and it's funny to read articles from those that believe it does. It's too expensive to raise quality pork in the US, even harder to recover, let alone justify the overhead costs to do it. The US hog market is flat compared to Asia and South America, yet here we are giving all our pork money away to China and they are "thriving" from it. Had we maintained the market needs within this country, we wouldn't have any problems to contend with. With the outsourcing of almost all business production to China including many food products, we are now getting what we deserve for being so short-sighted (read: greedy). This is not a problem in Europe or Asia, only the US. Go figure? ;)

    We only purchase locally raised pork products for our catering clients (and for ourselves) and I'm perfectly fine with paying a premium for it. So are our clients. ;)

    Jim

    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
  • diver-rigdiver-rig Member Posts: 6,338 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I agree, small farm hog lots are a thing of past around me. But I have probably a dozen hog confinement?s within 5 miles of me.

    Lkannes an probably elaborate, he?s been working in packing houses in western Iowa for decades. There?s no shortage of hogs here.
  • MobuckMobuck Member Posts: 14,163 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    You're about 6 months behind the curve. The ASF outbreak has nearly run out and the severely affected areas have started "re-stocking".
    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".
  • yoshmysteryoshmyster Member Posts: 22,059 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Seen prices for prepack bacon for $7.99 a pound. Nothing special just Farmer John or Hormel. Typically I'll buy it when they're about $3.99 or less. The thing I don't get is sir loin roast or when they cut them up and sold as "chops" are typically .88 cents. See that more often since the "tariff wars" and China not buying pork? It's my go to cheap meat instead of $1.29 a pound for whole chicken (I miss those .78 cents a pound whole chicken days). I blame the cost of chicken on the cage free crap us Californians "wanted". I want my cheap full of cruelty chicken. I miss that flavor.

    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.
  • ProceramicProceramic Member Posts: 334
    edited November -1
    Bacon n eggs...... A days work for a chicken. A lifetime commitment for pig.
  • hoosierhoosier Member Posts: 1,607 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    There is a Amish Place in Horse Cave, KY. that has 32oz for $ 4.99 !!! Thick sliced.
    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.
    Magazines, Gun Parts and More. US Army Veteran, VFW, NRA Patron
  • BrookwoodBrookwood Member, Moderator Posts: 13,771 ******
    edited November -1
    Our local "big box" supermarket, "Meijers" has been selling all kinds of what I call off brands of bacon for the last several months now. All of the big name brands very rarely go on sale and regular prices are around 6 bucks a pound and sometimes spike a bit higher. The off brands are names I have never encountered and sell on sale for about 3.99 a pound.

    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!
  • armilitearmilite Member Posts: 35,490 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Saw a news report last week that we have never had as much bacon stock pilled in the U.S. as we do now.
  • jwb267jwb267 Member Posts: 19,664 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    our local store sells kunzler brand for $4.59 per pound
    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
  • droptopdroptop Member Posts: 8,363 ✭✭
    edited November -1
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    pig03.gif

    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
  • MobuckMobuck Member Posts: 14,163 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Both Oscar Meyer and Smithfield plants in my area. If you really, really want to know what's going on in the "global pork market", I can find out. Such things just aren't that important to me.
  • nmyersnmyers Member Posts: 16,892 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    It may be too expensive to get rid of "pig waste", if the environmental folks require improvements.

    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
  • diver-rigdiver-rig Member Posts: 6,338 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    nmyers wrote:
    It may be too expensive to get rid of "pig waste", if the environmental folks require improvements.

    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.
  • diver-rigdiver-rig Member Posts: 6,338 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    At a dairy confinement up the road, they want to build a digestor. They say it?ll take the confinement poop, and waste, put it in their fancy contraption, and make methane gas, to be burned in a electrical generator, to power confinement and part of surrounding area.

    Sounds good on paper, but they can?t get any investors.
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