China's 2018 African Swine Fever & The Purchase of 25% of the U.S. Pork Industry (Smithfield Foods)

[Dan Warnick + 6,100]

**  Covid-19 is not the only large scale disease the Chinese government has had to deal with in recent times.  Excerpts from a November 5, 2019 Reuters article:

 At Smithfield Foods' slaughterhouse, China brings home U.S. bacon 

In 2018 they got hit with the "African swine fever, a fatal pig disease that has killed millions of hogs in China and turned the world’s top pork consumer into a major meat importer."

"Bought by China’s WH Group Ltd (0288.HK) six years ago for $4.7 billion, Smithfield Foods has retooled U.S. processing operations to direct meat to China, which produced half the world’s pork before swine fever decimated the industry."

**  For those interested in the U.S./China Trade War and the effect Tariffs are, or are not, having on China:

"China is importing U.S. hog carcasses because it needs the entire animal, rather than specific parts, market analysts said. China has excess capacity in its processing industry due to the disease outbreak and can cut up U.S. carcasses to meet domestic tastes more cheaply than buying already-butchered pork, they said."

"China’s tariffs on frozen carcasses are also 62%, compared with 72% for muscle cuts, said Erin Borror, economist for the U.S. Meat Export Federation, an industry group."

“They need to be able to run their plants and keep workers employed to the extent possible,” she said."

"Smithfield Foods said it is subject to the same Chinese trade tariffs as other U.S. pork producers, despite being owned by a China-based company."

**  Meanwhile Tyson Foods warns that "The food supply chain is breaking" in the United States:

Tyson Foods takes out full-page ad: 'The food supply chain is breaking'

"In a full-page ad published in The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, board chairman John Tyson wrote that “the food supply chain is breaking," saying farmers will be left without anywhere to sell livestock and "millions of animals — chickens, pigs and cattle — will be depopulated because of the closure of our processing facilities."

"There will be limited supply of our products available in grocery stores until we are able to reopen our facilities that are currently closed," he added."

**  Current issues aside, is it a good idea to sell a significant portion of the U.S. meat industry to a foreign country such as China?  Why does the U.S. Government allow such sales?  Here are some excerpts from a PBS NewsHour story (there are references to Oil as a resource inside as well):

NATHAN HALVERSON:

The takeover raised concerns the Chinese government was a hidden player in the deal. Some members of Congress wondered why Shuanghui group would pay more than Smithfield's market value.

SEN. DEBBIE STABENOW, (D) Michigan: The Chinese paid a 30 percent premium. Very interesting. Not exactly the best business deal, so what's really going on here? What really is it that this merger, this purchase, was all about?

NATHAN HALVERSON:

Senator Debbie Stabenow heads the Senate Agriculture Committee. She says food is a strategic resource that should be as important to the U.S. government as oil.

SEN. DEBBIE STABENOW:

This isn't just an acquisition of a company. It's 25 percent of the pork industry in the United States.

NATHAN HALVERSON:

Stabenow worried that the Smithfield takeover could signal a long-term threat to the vital American food industry.

SEN. DEBBIE STABENOW:

This is a precedent-setting case.

NATHAN HALVERSON:

As the U.S. government reviewed the deal, Stabenow called a Senate hearing to take a deeper look at the first Chinese purchase of a major American food company.

Edited April 28, 2020 by Dan Warnick

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

Pork is a primary source of protein for much of China.

The recent swine flu decimated China's domestic pig production.

[El Nikko + 2,145]

3 hours ago, Tom Kirkman said:

Pork is a primary source of protein for much of China.

The recent swine flu decimated China's domestic pig production.

and bats

[Dan Warnick + 6,100]

1 minute ago, El Nikko said:

and bats

???

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

1 hour ago, El Nikko said:

and bats

[Dan Warnick + 6,100]

This must be why in ancient times people related bats to vampires: if they bite you, or just sneeze on you, you're dead!

[HermitMunster + 146]

"In May 2013, the United States confirmed the first cases of
PEDV on farms in Iowa and Indiana after which the
virus spread quickly throughout the country. While the
mode of PEDV introduction to the U.S. remains unknown,
comparison of available sequence data indicates the PEDV
strains detected in the Unites States have an ancestry linked
to PEDV strains detected in China.

At the end of 2013, sequenced U.S. strains had greater than 99.0% sequence identity and several strains shared unique nucleotides with
a Chinese PEDV strain isolated in the Anhui Province
(AH2012). Unexpected genetic similarity of U.S.
PEDV strains to a bat coronavirus isolated in southeastern
China may provide evidence for the role of cross-species
transmission in the development of emergent strains that
spread to the United States."

 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273500265_Investigating_the_introduction_of_porcine_epidemic_diarrhea_virus_into_an_Ohio_swine_operation

 

Now ask yourself if you think this event, which took place during the time that China took ownership of Smithfield Foods in 2013 was a coincidence? There is also no doubt in my mind that the Chinese state is trying to consolidate power with regard to livestock. They already have the most chickens and pigs in the world. Nothing would make them happier then for the U.S. to be dependent on them for livestock. They already wiped out their small farms with ASF (which wasn't a coincidence). 

[Dan Warnick + 6,100]

That takeover gave them 25% of our pork industry.  Now our supermarkets are in jeopardy of running short on hams and bacon.  But the hog carcasses keep on flowing to China at a rate of 10,000 carcasses per day, from that one plant alone.  I wonder how many go per day in total.

[Dan Warnick + 6,100]

And does anyone believe their government, assuming this company is private, is making them pay those huge tariffs?  I don't think so.

[HermitMunster + 146]

4 minutes ago, Dan Warnick said:

That takeover gave them 25% of our pork industry.  Now our supermarkets are in jeopardy of running short on hams and bacon.  But the hog carcasses keep on flowing to China at a rate of 10,000 carcasses per day, from that one plant alone.  I wonder how many go per day in total.

 

The Art of Pork

[Wombat + 1,028]

23 hours ago, Tom Kirkman said:

Pork is a primary source of protein for much of China.

The recent swine flu decimated China's domestic pig production.

Yep, but the main reason reason u shld fill ur freezer with bacon, Tom, is that u have to euthanise 160,000 hogs a day due to covid shutdown of ur processors. Bacon shortage starts in about one week as far as I know. U might be vegan, but I doubt it

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

Just now, Wombat said:

Yep, but the main reason reason u shld fill ur freezer with bacon, Tom, is that u have to euthanise 160,000 hogs a day due to covid shutdown of ur processors. Bacon shortage starts in about one week as far as I know. U might be vegan, but I doubt it

I'm on Keto this week, so going through 8 eggs and a pound of bacon a day, before starting an extended fast in a couple days.