quote:

Originally posted by VBVAGUY:
Lately China has been purchasing some of our livestock farms that produce pork and chicken and shipping them back for their own people. God Bless

They just want the pig heads, ears, noses, feet, blood, bellies, and the chicken legs and feet. We can have the pork chops and chicken breasts and wings. Fair trade IMO.

quote:

Originally posted by Lefty Sig:

quote:

Originally posted by VBVAGUY:
Lately China has been purchasing some of our livestock farms that produce pork and chicken and shipping them back for their own people. God Bless

They just want the pig heads, ears, noses, feet, blood, bellies, and the chicken legs and feet. We can have the pork chops and chicken breasts and wings. Fair trade IMO.

Per person, China eats a whole lot more pork than we do in the US, they control about 60% of the world swine population.

Smithfield, the giant US pork company (John Morrell, Farmer John, Nathan's, Armour, Cook's), was bought by Shuanghui International Holding's, the world's largest pork producer back in 2013 for $7.1B.

^^^^ True. Go to the meat section of a Wal-Mart in China and look at the pig parts. They are exactly as I described. But still, they like various parts of pigs, but you will never see a good pork chop. I do know a really good BBQ place in Beijing that serves American style pulled pork and ribs. Actually two.

quote:

Originally posted by Lefty Sig:
^^^^ True. Go to the meat section of a Wal-Mart in China and look at the pig parts. They are exactly as I described. But still, they like various parts of pigs, but you will never see a good pork chop. I do know a really good BBQ place in Beijing that serves American style pulled pork and ribs. Actually two.

Most of the world eats the parts of the animal that as American's we turn our nose up at; as a country our meat palate isn't very broad. Go into any Carneceria or, Asian market and their butcher section is twice as big and diverse as any mainstream US market. I'm good to eat from snout-trotters-to-tail; the last two years I've been cooking with giuancale and pancetta a lot more, great ingredients for pastas and sautéed vegetables.

A friend of mine thought for a good long time about opening up a American smoked meat BBQ kind of restaurant in Italy. In the end the Italian small business bureaucracy was too frustrating and he canned that idea before he spent anymore $.

If you look at the totally of the topics in the lounge, we are not currently on a good track. Violence, gas shortages, stagflation, racial division, massive government spending, civil unrest, acceptance of communism/Marist idealogy, riots, etc.

We are heading for a period of outrageous inflation and massive government debt. All of us who've worked hard to have a tiny nest egg, are going to realize it's a miniscule nest egg.

Just picked up a 3-pack of St Louis spare ribs at Costco today.

The most I’ve ever paid there in the past was $33/pack. Some years it was $22-$25 a pack, other years $28-$30 a pack.

Today?

$55 a pack


Thanks Biden

I was going to buy a brisket but they were all pushing $90 each for a flat. Screw that

quote:

Originally posted by Outnumbered:
Are farmers getting a commensurate bump in market values?

Of course. Hog farmers are not stupid, and know that pork is scarce. Therefore, they price it higher.

Plus pork buyers have to pay more - if one or several tries to offer the old, lower price, another will offer a higher price at which they can still make money after processing (and squeezing out the low bidder) and prices are driven up accordingly.

This is basic microeconomics. Basic supply and demand stuff.

Pigs get fat, Hogs go to slaughter....

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:

quote:

Originally posted by Outnumbered:
Are farmers getting a commensurate bump in market values?

Of course. Hog farmers are not stupid, and know that pork is scarce. Therefore, they price it higher.

Plus pork buyers have to pay more - if one or several tries to offer the old, lower price, another will offer a higher price at which they can still make money after processing (and squeezing out the low bidder) and prices are driven up accordingly.

This is basic microeconomics. Basic supply and demand stuff.

Not quite that simple. Hogs aren’t as time critical as stone fruit, but there comes a time when it costs a lot more to keep them than it would make sense to hold. Farmers don’t haggle on a price per hog (or avocado). They sell into the market at the price the market is offering. I can’t speak to the intricacies of the hog market, but I can tell you there are a few major packing houses for avocados, and some more minors. A farmer can get prices from as many as he wants and have bins on hand for the ones he likes and pick for whoever has the best array of prices when he wants to pick, but he will be picking at a market price. I strongly suspect it is not much different with hogs.