any of you guy's that are pork eaters, chops, roasts, bacon etc-etc, anything pig, might want to put some away in the freezer and sooner than later. there is a huge swine flu outbreak in china and the volumes are crazy numbers.--"China pork deficit may eclipse U.S. production, economist says"-- a couple of my suppliers are already limiting the volume of some of the products to be bought per order. besides the prices rising, as we speak, you will notice the sizes of the products going way up, they make more money on bigger hogs. as this goes on it will put a lot of pressure on the beef and chicken prices also.
Got this all typed out and just about deleted it, don't know what could be done about it. Don't know if anything can be done until after the fact. Can't teach someone to have a conscience.
Wasn't that many years ago, the farmers couldn't give pigs away. Lot of producers took a real heavy hit. We had two separate cases in our area where young guys (early twenties) got into pigs through their farming Dads. Using rented barns off the home farm, they both walked away from their operations because there was no money in it. Never mind the welfare of the animals, these young bucks couldn't have cared less. One barn full died off over a two week period, the young guy was charged over it, don't know what came of it, never heard. The second guy was in the process of pulling the same stunt, only his Dad caught wind of it. Big argument issued and Dad took it over, fed the pigs, took them to market and incurred a loss. Sonny had hit the road. The father and son haven't spoke to each other since. Dad's not impressed with sonny and the kid don't care. Big difference in attitude, empathy and responsibility of two different generations. What's this got to do with the pork business? Just that if the prices spike and it become lucrative again, it's sure to attract the goofs in the crowd. I like bacon and what not just as much as the next guy, but I also would like to believe the animals are cared for properly before hand. Ok rants over.
Stop by Appleby just south of the QEW on a Wed. morning and see all the Vegan nut job housewives with nothing better to do standing on the Island between lanes of traffic, blocking trucks trying to get to the processing plant and squirting water on the pigs as they go by.
Then there is this guy that goes across the street from them and sets up a bbq and starts giving away free hot dogs to passing traffic...too funny
