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Thread: Bacon!!!!!!

  1. #46
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    Kevin Bacon made of bacon

    Gene Ching
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  2. #47
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    Starting to raid and forcibly demolish meat-smoking sites

    This is where China will never be as free as America. Just imagine the outrage if the U.S. Government tried to shut down bacon-making in America.


    Official blames smoked bacon for smog
    2015-01-15 16:36 Xinhua Web Editor: Gu Liping

    While experts point to car emissions and city construction for causing foul air, a government official in a southwest China city has laid the blame on people making smoked bacon.

    The city of Dazhou in Sichuan Province has endured heavy smog since the new year began, with the PM 2.5 reading frequently exceeding healthy levels.

    Rao Bing, deputy head of Dazhou Environment Protection Bureau, said on January 4 that one of the causes of the city's lingering smog is smoking bacon, a traditional method of preserving pork by local residents.

    Eating preserved pork and sausages is a long-held tradition in Sichuan, and almost every household makes smoked bacon before the Chinese lunar new year, which falls on Feb. 19 this year.

    Local chengguan, or public civil servants, have started to raid and forcibly demolish meat-smoking sites.

    The claim invited public ridicule and skepticism after Rao's statement found its way online on Wednesday.

    On Sina Weibo, netizens mocked the official's argument by saying that Dazhou's air might "smell like smoked bacon."

    "Smoking bacon has a long history, but smog does not," said one comment.

    Smoking meat does contribute to air pollution, but only to a small degree, according to volunteers at Bayu Public Welfare Development Center, a non-government environmental protection organization, which conducted a three-day survey at a dozen bacon-smoking sites.

    "The impact of the smoking process is confined within a 50-meter radius," a volunteer told the Chongqing Evening News.

    It is not the first time that Chinese government officials have suggested controversial explanations for smog. In October, environmental watchdogs in Beijing and the adjacent Henan Province, two severely polluted places, blamed the smog on farmers burning straw, an agricultural practice with a long history.

    In recent years, swathes of the country have frequently reported heavy smog, slashing visibility and posing health hazards. China has taken a variety of measures to contain severe air pollution, including restricting industrial production and vehicle use.
    Gene Ching
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  3. #48
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    I know you were all concerned about China banning smoked bacon

    Be at ease now. It's all better.

    Smoked bacon was never the cause of Sichuan city's pollution, of course



    Bacon was not to blame for the hazardous air pollution in Dazhou, Sichuan province, reports now say, confirming what proponents of smoked meats have known all along.

    An air of gloom settled over the already smog-ridden city last month when Rao Bing, the deputy head of the Dazhou Environment Protection Bureau, pointed to smoked bacon as the cause of the city's insufferable haze and promptly ordered closures.

    Following a long-held tradition, nearly every household in Dazhou makes smoked bacon ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday. This year, however, it was not to be. Chengguan, unrepentant in their cruelty, smashed down bacon-smoking sites and tore families from tradition...and it was all done in vain. IN VAIN!

    Air quality index (AQI) levels showed no improvement following the citywide smoked bacon shutdown, according to Shanghai Daily. Now, one sensible pollution prevention official (and possibly that godforsaken city's only hope) has broken his silence on the matter to point out that it was probably the local industrial giant Dazhou Steel Group causing the pollution.

    The unnamed official was quoted as saying that the bad air quality was more probably a result of industrial pollution, and that as the city’s biggest energy consumer the steel corporation was the prime suspect.

    Officials were prompted to tackle the air pollution situation when they noticed that the AQI appeared static above 200. On several days it surpassed 470.

    The attack on bacon smokers caused much controversy in the city, as the industry dates back hundreds of years and locals consider sizzling rashers a culinary staple.

    Observers have confirmed that smoking meat does contribute to pollution, but only to the smallest degree. Dazhou Steel, meanwhile, produces around 3.5 million tons of pig iron every year.
    Gene Ching
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  4. #49
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    Matt "Megatoad" Stonie eats 182 pieces in 5 minutes

    22-year old sets bacon-eating record: 182 pieces in 5 minutes


    Image: Gerardo Mora/Smithfield

    By Brian Koerber 15 hours ago

    You may love bacon, but the thought of eating six pounds of the pork product is enough to make anyone sick.

    Anyone except competitive eater Matt "Megatoad" Stonie, who has snagged another award — this time for eating 182 slices of bacon (approximately 6 lbs) in five minutes at the Daytona 500 in Florida on Sunday, Huffington Post reports. The event was sponsored by Smithfield bacon.

    According to CompetitveEaters.com, the previous unofficial record was set by Mark "The Human Vacuum" Lyle, who ate just 54 pieces in five minutes.

    The competition Stonie won was set up by Major League Eaters, and was their first venture into bacon-eating. MLE currently ranks Stonie second in the world of competitive eating.



    Stonie takes an interesting approach to eating bacon, grabbing a handful, bending it in half, chomping away and following it with a glass of water. According to his Facebook page, he is very picky about how he likes his bacon prepared.

    After taking the title, the 22-year-old told Huffington Post that "the bacon was cooked just the way I like it — a little crispy because I don't like having to chew it." He added: "It can't be too crispy and if it's not warm when I get it, the fat coagulates into lard."

    Stonie is a San Jose local. I heard him on Live 105 during my commute today. San Jose couldn't be more proud.
    Gene Ching
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  5. #50
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    bummer

    Bacon is the hardest one to give up.


    Bacon, hot dogs and processed meats cause cancer, WHO says
    BY Nsikan Akpan October 26, 2015 at 8:51 AM EDT | Updated: Oct 26, 2015 at 10:35 AM


    Barbecue with sausages and hamburger. Photo by JOKER/Erich Haefele/ullstein bild/via Getty Images

    Bacon, sausage and other processed meats are now ranked alongside cigarettes and asbestos as known carcinogens, the World Health Organization announced today. Processed meats cause cancer, and red meat likely causes cancer, the health agency says in a new report.

    The new investigation involved 22 scientists who were invited by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer to assess the association between more than 16 types of cancer and the consumption of red meat and processed meat.

    Over the course of seven days in early October, the scientific panel examined more than 800 epidemiological studies from the U.S., Europe, Japan, Australia and elsewhere. The scope covered multiple ethnicities and global diets, according to the report which was published today in the journal Lancet Oncology.

    The WHO group “classified consumption of processed meat as ‘carcinogenic to humans’ on the basis of sufficient evidence for colorectal cancer.” Colorectal cancer is the second most lethal form of cancer in the U.S., causing nearly 50,000 deaths per year. Processed meat was also linked to a higher incidence of stomach cancer.

    Red meat carries a slightly lower risk, the group says, but is still “probably carcinogenic to humans.” Aside from the “strong mechanistic evidence” related to colorectal cancer, the “consumption of red meat was also positively associated with pancreatic and with prostate cancer.

    As a main line of evidence, the group cites one study from 2011, which combed through 28 studies on meat consumption and cancer risk dating back to 1966. That meta analysis found that colorectal cancer risk jumps by 17 percent for every 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of red meat consumed each day. Meanwhile with processed meat, colorectal cancer risk increases by 18 percent for every 50 grams (1.7 ounces) eaten each day.

    The International Agency for Research on Cancer keeps a list of compounds or activities with suspected, probable and definitive links to cancer, with each possible item falling into a designated grouping based on whether or not it causes cancer.

    Processed meat now falls into “group 1,” meaning it ranks as high as tobacco smoking, the most dangerous variants of human papillomavirus (HPV) and asbestos exposure in terms of causing cancer. Red meat lands in “group 2A” with inorganic lead.

    Research in rodents and human tissue shows meat consumption increases the production of chemical compounds, including haem iron and its chemical byproduct N-nitroso-compounds (NOCs). NOCs cause oxidative damage to intestinal tissue that is carcinogenic. Curing meats elevates the levels of NOCs as well as carcinogenic compounds called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Heating meat leads to the formation of heterocyclic aromatic amines, a known mutagen and cancer-causing agent.

    “High-temperature cooking by pan-frying, grilling, or barbecuing generally produces the highest amounts of these chemicals,” the report states.

    The new analysis makes a definitive assertion on the connection between eating meat and cancer. In recent years, studies and health policy groups have linked the two activities, but often without explicitly saying meat causes cancer. Take, for example, the American Cancer Society’s position as of this morning:

    Because of a wealth of studies linking colon cancer to diets high in red meats (beef, lamb, or liver) and processed meats (hot dogs, bologna, etc.), the Society encourages people to eat more vegetables and fish and less red and processed meats.

    As the Guardian reported, the WHO’s new position aligns the views with other health agencies like the World Cancer Research Fund, which has said there is convincing evidence that processed meats cause bowel cancer.

    Though a majority of the WHO’s panel agreed to these assessments, the final decision was not unanimous.

    The beef industry has been preparing a rebuttal for months to meet the WHO’s announcement, according to The Washington Post:

    “We simply don’t think the evidence support any causal link between any red meat and any type of cancer,” Shalene McNeill, executive director of human nutrition at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, told The Washington Post.
    Gene Ching
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  6. #51
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    Not really anything we didn't know. Everything in moderation. Oxygen is toxic. Going to be a hard economic blow though.

  7. #52
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    Slightly OT

    No Kung Fu...Pork!

    Is this the oldest woman in the world? Great-great grandmother from China celebrates 119th birthday

    Fu Suqing, from China's Taiping town, turned 119 on August 21
    The long-living woman was born in 1897, as her ID card shows
    Fu's family members said her secret to longevity is to eat pork
    In Guinness World Records, the world's oldest living woman is 116

    By TRACY YOU FOR MAILONLINE
    PUBLISHED: 09:44 EST, 22 August 2016 | UPDATED: 09:58 EST, 22 August 2016

    A great-great-grandmother from China celebrated her 119th birthday yesterday.

    According to her identification card, the elderly woman, named Fu Suqing, was born in 1897 - the same year the UK's Queen Victoria celebrated her Diamond Jubilee.

    Although Chinese media claim Fu to be the oldest living female in the world, an Argentinean pensioner named Celina del Carmen Olea reportedly turned 119 on February 15 this year, making her six months older than Fu.


    Famous: Fu Suqing is seen during her birthday feast as she turned 119 years old yesterday


    A big birthday party! The pensioner celebrated the occassion with more than 200 guests

    Fu Suqing was born on the 19th day of the seventh month on Chinese lunar calendar, as her identification card shows.

    Her birthday fell on August 21 on the Gregorian calendar this year.

    The pensioner celebrated the occasion with more than 200 guests at her home in the Taiping town of Chengdu city, south-west China, reported the People's Daily Online.

    More than 20 large round tables were set up by Fu's family to accommodate large groups of guests.


    Party food: A traditional local feast, called 'Nine Large Bowls', were prepared for each table


    Happy Birthday! The long-living woman, from China, has six children and 68 offsprings

    One of Fu's great-granddaughters, Leng Ting, told a local reporter: 'Most of the guests are family members and friends. They occupy more than 10 tables.'

    A traditional local feast, called 'Nine Large Bowls', were prepared for each table. The feast included nine steamed meat dishes, such as pork ribs, beef and turtles.

    Fu's family members revealed that the secret to her longevity is to eat meat, especially a local dish called twice-cooked pork, which is Fu's favourite.

    The birthday star, who wore a navy blue coat, attended the feast accompanied by her second eldest daughter, 83-year-old Xu Shuhua.

    Fu reportedly ate a small chuck of carrot and two pieces of ham on her birthday feast.

    The long-living woman has six children and 68 offsprings. Her oldest great-great grandchild is 23 years old.

    Fu's great-granddaughter, Leng, said they almost lost count of how many children Fu has now.

    Leng said Fu has got five new great-grandchildren in the past two years, the youngest of whom, a boy, had been born four days before Fu's birthday.


    Now that's old! According to Fu's ID card, she was born in 1897 during China's Qing Dynasty


    What a big family! Fu was pictured holding one of her great-great-grandchildren in 2015

    Fu's daily life is taken care of by her second eldest daughter, Xu Shuhua.

    Xu said her mother enjoyed eating twice-cooked pork and used to eat it in every meal.

    But in the recent six months, her mother's appetite decreased, which worries her.

    She said: '[My mother] has stopped eating meat and the portion of her meals becomes really small. Sometimes, she only drinks soup.'

    Xu also said her mother eats mostly mushy pea and steamed pumpkins nowadays and sleeps most of the day every day.

    However, she has not been able to find out what causes these sudden changes.



    Although Chinese media claim Fu to be the oldest living female in the world, an Argentinean pensioner named Celina del Carmen Olea (pictured) reportedly also turned 119 this year


    Celina Del Carmen Olea (pictured with her family), from Buenos Aires, claims she was born on February 15, making her six months older than Fu

    According to Guinness World Records, the world’s oldest living person is a 116-year-old woman named Emma Martina Luigia Morano.

    She was born on 29 November 1899 and lives in Vercelli, Italy.

    Ms Morano has followed the same diet for around 90 years, said Guinness World Records.

    She eats three eggs per day - two raw and one cooked - along with fresh Italian pasta and a dish of raw meat.

    Jakki Lewis, a spokesman from Guinness World Records, told MailOnline: 'We have many applications from people who claim to be the oldest male or female – this category is split into gender.

    'However, we ask for a great deal of paperwork and proof to substantiate claims and to satisfy our official guidelines.'

    The spokesman added: 'We also have a number of expert gerontologists and consultants investigating for us to ensure our facts are correct.'


    The world’s oldest living woman is 116-year-old Emma Martina Luigia Morano (pictured) from Italy, according to Guinness World Records

    Robert Young, a senior consultant for gerontology at Guinness World Records, said in order to validate a person's longevity claim, a set of paperwork is required.

    They include the original proof of birth, a recent identification card with the date of birth and photo as well as mid-life documents such as a marriage record.

    Mr Young added: 'For a claim to the age of 119, we would like a family tree that helps to show how the person fits in.

    'Additionally, we would need information on parents, siblings, and children, as well as places of birth, residence and death.'
    Gene Ching
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  8. #53
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    Pork addicts

    Pork Addiction Sends China Searching for Hedge of Hog Risk
    OCTOBER 27, 2016 08:55 AM


    Farmers can’t keep up and rising costs can boost inflation.

    By Bloomberg

    China is looking to hedge the cost of its pork addiction.

    In a country that consumes half the world’s pork, price swings have become so large that they hurt the ability of domestic producers to keep up with demand, even with a herd of 450 million pigs. Imports are the highest ever and exceed all other buyers.

    The Dalian Commodity Exchange, China’s largest marketplace for everything from corn and eggs to iron ore, says it may have a way to help minimize that risk: a hog futures contract. Dalian is planning to offer trading in hogs for the first time next year, according to two people who’ve been briefed about its plans. The contract could help farmers, meat buyers and investors better plan for price moves as well as encourage consolidation in the industry.



    Hogs “could become the largest agriculture futures contract” in the country, said Jim Huang, chief executive officer at China-America Commodities Data Analytics Inc. Based on the 2 trillion yuan ($295 billion) of the animals bought and sold annually in China, a popular contract on Dalian could generate trading valued at 10 times that amount, Huang said.

    A futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell a commodity at a specific price and date. Speculators use the market to bet on price changes, but the agreements also are used to reduce financial risk by locking in sales for producers and costs for consumers.

    While there’s no guarantee a new contract will be successful, the Dalian Commodity Exchange has become a benchmark for the expanding raw-material and agricultural markets in China, the world’s second-largest economy. Trading on the exchange has ballooned to 1.12 billion contracts last year from 240.7 million in 2006. The biggest markets are soybean meal and iron ore.

    Wang Fenghai, the Dalian Commodity Exchange’s CEO, told a conference in September that after 15 years of studying the market, the bourse would start trading in hog futures in the near future. He declined to provide details. A spokesman at the Dalian exchange declined to comment on its plans.

    The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, owned by CME Group Inc., has the world’s most-used hog futures, trading a record 37,000 contracts a day in the first quarter. Each contract is for 40,000 pounds (18 tons) of hog carcasses, valued at about $17,680. However, the CME serves as more of a U.S. benchmark with little influence on supplies in China, the world’s most-populous nation at more than 1.37 billion people.

    The lack of a domestic futures contract has hurt the Chinese pork industry as well as consumers, Fang Xinghai, vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said at a conference in Zhengzhou, Henan province, in September.

    More Meat

    Pork accounts for 60 percent of the meat consumed in China, and domestic producers can’t keep up. The country probably will import a record 2.4 million metric tons this year, triple the 761,000 tons of 2014, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Foreign supplies will account for 4.4 percent of what the country consumes in 2016, up from 1.3 percent in 2014, the data show.

    Hog futures in China still face hurdles. The exchange hasn’t disclosed any details about what the contract will entail, including what kind of hogs will be acceptable for delivery. Providing reliable quality standards will also be necessary, said Feng Yonghui, Beijing-based chief analyst with industry consulting firm Soozhu.com.

    The meat industry has faced a series of food-safety violations including rat, fox and mink meat sold as mutton and a meat supplier selling expired chicken and beef. Thousands of pig carcasses were found in the Huangpu River, a major source of drinking water for Shanghai.

    Pork Index

    With China’s per-capita pork consumption twice the global average, the meat has an out-sized impact on inflation. Swings in the cost of domestic supply got so wide over the past decade that some economists joked the country’s consumer price index should be renamed the China pork index. Record prices for the meat in 2008 and 2011 sent the overall inflation rate surging, government data show. Wholesale pork touched an all-time high in June.



    “Pork’s consumption is the biggest among meats in the country, but we still don’t have pork futures,” Fang, the CSRC official, said in September. “The absence of hogs contracts gave rise to hog cycles and brought huge risks to the country’s pork producers.”

    Providing a viable hedging tool will help, according to Huang of China-America Commodities Data Analytics. After the CME began its contract in 1966, the U.S. industry eventually saw consolidation that left a few big companies controlling supply, he said. In China, the market is dominated by smaller enterprises, with big producers, including Guangdong Wens Foodstuffs Group Co., accounting for about 5 percent, he said.

    “Standardized production by big enterprises can mean more control over the price,” said Hou Wuqun, vice president at pork producer Chuying Agro-Pastoral Group Co. “That would help decrease the swings.”
    If memory serves, Chinese do pork really well. Pork lap chong....mmmmmm.
    Gene Ching
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  9. #54
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    Omnipork

    That name just sounds like a thinly-disguised term for human meat in some sci-fi like Soylent Green.

    This vegetarian company wants to disrupt China's pork industry
    by Sherisse Pham @Sherisse
    April 24, 2018: 1:41 AM ET

    David Yeung wants to take a bite out of China's massive meat market.

    When the founder of Green Common, a vegetarian grocery store and casual dining chain in Hong Kong, started bringing plant-based burgers and other meatless products to Asia, he saw an opportunity.

    "One of the most consumed meats in the world is actually overlooked -- that is pork," Yeung told CNNMoney.

    Yeung on Monday launched a new product called omnipork which he hopes will change people's diets in mainland China, the world's largest consumer of pork. Omnipork is made from soy, pea, mushroom and rice proteins, but it tries to mimic the taste and feel of real pork.

    Yeung's company -- Right Treat -- is currently seeking approval from Chinese regulators and expects to start selling omnipork in mainland China before the end of the year.

    In China, pork is a beloved meat: the Chinese character for family is a pig under a roof. Until recently, the country's growing ranks of middle class consumers had fueled a massive rise in pork consumption.

    People in China will eat about 56 million tons of pork this year, more than any other country, according to US Department of Agriculture estimates.

    But demand may be peaking. Last year, overall pork consumption in China hit a three-year low of 54.8 million tons.

    The dip came after the Chinese government issued dietary guidelines in 2016, outlining a plan to cut meat consumption in half. An official campaign included commercials featuring actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzeneggar encouraging Chinese people to eat less meat to help the planet.


    Omnipork is made from mushroom, pea, soy and rice proteins, but it tries to mimic the taste and feel of real pork.

    Yeung hopes to tap into China's changing diets, but it's still a lofty goal to convince people who grew up chowing down on pork dumplings and sweet-and-sour pork to choose meatless alternatives.

    He compares his ambitions to what Starbucks has achieved in China.

    "China has never been a coffee drinking country. For the last 5,000 years, Chinese people drink tea," he said. "But what Starbucks has done is they create a lifestyle, and it is aspirational, it's about much more than what is inside the cup, it is everything around it."

    Yeung is joining other startups that are looking to shake up the global meat industry. They include Beyond Meat, which is bankrolled by actor Leonardo di Caprio, Microsoft (MSFT) founder Bill Gates and agricultural giant Tyson Foods.

    Yeung is also an investor in Beyond Meat and brought its meatless burger and other products to Hong Kong. He said his company saw sales of Beyond Meat grow fourfold in one year, and there are plans to take it to mainland China by the end of the year.

    Impossible Foods, a startup behind a meatless burger that bleeds, launched in Hong Kong last week, its first international market.

    But Yeung says those startups' products generally appeal to Western palates. He made omnipork specifically for Asian dishes, enlisting a Michelin star chef -- Li Yuet Faat at Ming Court -- to tackle a few Chinese staples.

    At first, Li said he wasn't sure what to do with omnipork. Eventually, he decided to try using it for xiaolong bao, steamed soup dumplings typically stuffed with pork. It took the chef and his team several tries before they finally made a version with omnipork that they were ready to serve.

    This CNNMoney reporter and three colleagues did a blind test of omnipork soup dumplings alongside regular ones -- and everyone could taste the difference. But everyone also agreed that the omnipork soup dumplings were still tasty. Li will also roll out a sweet-and-sour pork dish using omnipork in June.

    "You can use this ingredient many ways, steam it, cook it, fry it, pan fry it, stuff it in dumplings, meatballs," Yeung said. "This is something that we want to be really all purpose."

    CNNMoney (Hong Kong)
    First published April 23, 2018: 9:14 AM ET
    THREADS: Bacon!!!!!!
    Vegetarian
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  10. #55
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    Tempted to change this thread name from Bacon!!!!!! to Pork!

    Bacon!!!!!! is a better sell though.

    MAY 10, 2018 / 4:07 PM / 3 DAYS AGO
    China's multi-story hog hotels elevate industrial farms to new levels
    Dominique Patton
    7 MIN READ

    YAJI MOUNTAIN, China (Reuters) - On Yaji Mountain in southern China, they are checking in the sows a thousand head per floor in high-rise “hog hotels”.

    Privately owned agricultural company Guangxi Yangxiang Co Ltd is running two seven-floor sow breeding operations, and is putting up four more, including one with as many as 13 floors that will be the world’s tallest building of its kind.

    Hog farms of two or three floors have been tried in Europe. Some are still operating, others have been abandoned, but few new ones have been built in recent years, because of management difficulties and public resistance to large, intensive farms.

    Now, as China pushes ahead with industrialization of the world’s largest hog herd, part of a 30-year effort to modernize its farm sector and create wealth in rural areas, companies are experimenting with high-rise housing for pigs despite the costs. The “hotels” show how far some breeders are willing to go as China overhauls its farming model.

    “There are big advantages to a high-rise building,” said Xu Jiajing, manager of Yangxiang’s mountain-top farm.

    “It saves energy and resources. The land area is not that much but you can raise a lot of pigs.”

    Companies like Yangxiang are pumping more money into the buildings - about 30 percent more than on single-story modern farms - even as hog prices in China hold at an eight-year low.

    For some, the investments are too risky. Besides low prices that have smaller operations culling sows or re-thinking expansion plans, there is worry about diseases spreading through such intensive operations.

    But success for high-rise pig farms in China could have implications across densely populated, land-scarce Asia, as well as for equipment suppliers.

    “We see an increasing demand for two- or three-level buildings,” said Peter van Issum, managing director of Microfan, a Dutch supplier that designed Yangxiang’s ventilation system.

    Microfan also supplied a three-storey breeding operation, Daedeok JongDon GGP Farm, in South Korea.

    “The higher ones are still an exception, but the future might change rapidly,” van Issum said.

    HIGH-RISE HOGS

    Yaji Mountain seems an unlikely location for a huge breeding farm. Up a narrow road, away from villages, massive concrete pig buildings overlook a valley of dense forest that Yangxiang plans to develop as a tourist attraction.

    The site, however, is relatively close to Guigang, a city with a river port and waterway connections to the Pearl River Delta, one of the world’s most densely populated regions.

    While Beijing is encouraging more livestock production in China’s grain basket in the northeast, many worry that farms there will struggle to get fresh pork safely to big cities thousands of miles away.



    That has helped push some farm investments to southern provinces like Guangxi and Fujian, where land is hilly but much closer to many of China’s biggest cities.

    Yangxiang will house 30,000 sows on its 11-hectare site by year-end, producing as many as 840,000 piglets annually. That will likely make it the biggest, most-intensive breeding farm globally. A more typical large breeding farm in northern China would have 8,000 sows on around 13 hectares.

    In Fujian province, Shenzhen Jinxinnong Technology Co Ltd also plans to invest 150 million yuan ($24 million) in two five-story sow farms in Nanping. Two other companies are building high-rise hog farms in Fujian as well, according to an equipment firm involved in the projects.

    Thai livestock-to-retail conglomerate CP Foods is also building four six-story pig units with local firm Zhejiang Huatong Meat Products Co in Yiwu, a Chinese city near the large populations around Shanghai.

    HIGH-TECH COMPLEXITY

    Yangxiang spent 16,000 yuan per sow on its new farm, about 500 million yuan total, not including the cost of the pigs.

    Building upwards means higher costs and greater complexity, such as for piping feed into buildings, said Xue Shiwei, vice chief operations officer at Pipestone Livestock Technology Consultancy, a Chinese unit of a U.S. farm management company.

    “It would save on land but increase the complexity of the structure, and costs for concrete or steel would be higher,” he said.

    Health concerns also raise costs, because the risk of rampant disease - an ever-present problem in China’s livestock sector - is higher with more animals under one roof.


    A worker waits for an elevator to transport young pigs out of Guangxi Yangxiang's high-rise pig farm, at Yaji Mountain Forest Park in Guangxi province, China, March 21, 2018. Picture taken March 21, 2018. REUTERS/Dominique Patton

    Even two-story farms in Europe have sparked worries that pigs will receive less care, said Irene Camerlink, an animal welfare expert at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna who has worked with Chinese farms.

    Any outbreak of disease could lead to extensive culling, she said.

    Farm manager Xu said Yangxiang reduces the risk of disease by managing each floor separately, with staff working on the same floor every day. New sows are introduced to a building on the top floor, and are then moved by elevator to an assigned level, where they remain.

    The ventilation system is designed to prevent air from circulating between floors or to other buildings. Air enters through ground channels and passes through ventilation ducts on each level. The ducts are connected to a central exhaust on the roof, with powerful extraction fans pulling the air through filters and pushing it out of 15-meter high chimneys.

    A waste treatment plant is still under construction on Yaji Mountain to handle the site’s manure. After treatment, the liquid will be sprayed on the surrounding forest, and solids sold to nearby farms as organic fertilizer.

    The project’s additional equipment - much of it imported - to reduce disease, environmental impact and labor costs, significantly increased Yangxiang’s spending, the company said.

    But after testing other models, Yangxiang concluded the multi-story building was best. Others are less convinced.

    “We need time to see if this model is do-able,” said Xue of the farm management firm, adding that he would not encourage clients to opt for “hog hotels”.

    “There will be many new, competing ideas (about how to raise pigs in China),” Xue said, including high-rise farms.

    Eventually, “a suitable model will emerge.”

    Reporting by Dominique Patton; Editing by Tom Hogue
    Imagine the smell...
    Gene Ching
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  11. #56
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    Bringing home the bacon...

    ...but can't afford the tariffs.

    'We are the casualty:' US pig farmers brace for second round of pork tariffs from China, Mexico

    U.S. pork producers are about to be hit by a second batch of hefty retaliatory tariffs from China and Mexico that has some large producers predicting they will lose big money.

    China is scheduled Friday to start collecting an additional 25 percent tariff on imported U.S. pork, which when added with the previous import taxes will mean a tax exceeding 70 percent.

    Industry analysts say China's high import tax essentially slams the door shut on U.S. pork imports into China, which also will start collecting 25 percent tariffs for soybeans Friday.

    Jeff Daniels | @jeffdanielsca
    Published 12:24 PM ET Wed, 4 July 2018 Updated 1 Hour Ago
    CNBC.com

    U.S. pork producers are about to be bitten by a second batch of hefty retaliatory tariffs from China and Mexico — and that has some large producers predicting they could lose big money and be forced to invest overseas.

    Executives say the pork industry has been expanding in recent years, in part on the expectation of export opportunities that would continue to support growth. However, the threat of a trade war is adding uncertainty and driving fear. One in 4 hogs raised in the U.S. is sold overseas, and the Chinese are the world's top consumers of pork.

    "We put a halt on all investment, not just because we will be losing money, but because we don't know if growing in the U.S. is the right move if we won't be an exporting country," said Ken Maschhoff, chairman of Maschhoff Family Foods and co-owner of the nation's largest family-owned pork producer.

    Maschhoff said the farm industry has been "asked to be good patriots. We have been. But I don't want to be the patriot who dies at the end of the war. If we go out of business, it's tough to look at my kids and the 550 farm families that look us into the eye and our 1,400 employees."

    Mexico imposed a 10 percent tariff on chilled and frozen pork muscle cuts effective June 5, and that import tax is set to double to 20 percent on Thursday. Mexico's retaliatory action followed the Trump administration's duties on imported aluminum and steel.

    China, meantime, is scheduled to start collecting an additional 25 percent import duty Friday on American pork products as it targets $34 billion worth of U.S. goods in response to President Donald Trump's action against Beijing for alleged intellectual property theft.

    China also is set to add tariffs this week on U.S. soybeans, corn, wheat, cotton, whiskey and dairy, as well as U.S. autos. Nearly $20 billion in U.S. agricultural exports went to China last year, with the more than half of that amount coming from soybeans.

    "It's pretty apparent that these countries will go after, by and large, Trump supporters from a political base standpoint since items exported by red states are the ones being targeted," said Maschhoff, a past president of the National Pork Producers Council and a fifth-generation hog producer.

    Whopping taxes and 'red ink'

    In April, China slapped U.S. pork imports with a 25 percent duty, in retaliation for the Trump administration's steel tariffs. When combined with previous import levies, "the other white meat" will be subjected to import taxes that approach a whopping 71 percent cumulatively, according to Rabobank, a financial services firm for the agribusiness. And that's without including the 10 percent VAT, or value-added tax, that China charges for the import of agricultural products.

    Industry analysts say China's high import tax essentially slams the door shut on U.S. pork imports into China, which will also begin collecting 25 percent tariffs for soybeans this Friday.

    "At 81 percent net tariff, you're not moving any pork product into China," said Christine McCracken, executive director of animal protein at Rabobank.

    "I would suspect by the end of the year, hog producers will be losing quite a bit of money. Part of it is just surplus pork on the market. We've been in an expansion mode."

    Industry experts estimate that the Chinese tariffs alone represent around $18 per animal on an annualized basis, or more than $2 billion.

    According to Maschhoff, the tariff will result in a hit of $100 million for his Illinois-based family farm operation, which markets about 5.5 million hogs a year and operates in 10 states.

    "That's one farm company, and not the whole industry," said Maschhoff. "It's really tough and we had anticipated a decent 2018-19. This is only the second time we've had red ink 37 years in the business."


    Luke Sharrett | Bloomberg | Getty Images
    Packages of Smithfield Foods Inc. bacon are displayed for sale inside a Kroger Co. grocery store in Louisville, Kentucky.

    Even some big U.S.-based food companies such as Hormel Foods and Tyson Foods are exposed to the new tit-for-tat reality between the U.S. and Mexico. Virginia-based Smithfield Foods, the nation's largest pork producer, is owned by China's WH Group, and ships pork to more than 40 countries. The company declined comment to CNBC.

    Hormel Foods warned in a 10-Q regulatory filing April 29 that "pork export margins could be challenged near-term due to tariffs on exports to China." But in a statement to CNBC, the company indicated that "only a very small portion of our pork is exported. We will be closely monitoring any impact on the broader protein markets."

    Tyson has exposure to Mexico's and China's meat markets. "With the current volatility in trade relations, we’ve experienced day-to-day uncertainty in our ability to deliver products and services to customers," the company said. "With countries imposing retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products, Tyson Foods as well as others in U.S. food and agriculture, will lose our competitive advantage in critical export markets like Mexico, Canada and China."

    The impact on the new tariffs is amplified by the domestic pork industry's expansion in recent years and the record-high hog herd disclosed last week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Also, the trade tussle with China comes as export volumes to China have been trending down from 2016 levels, when there was record need for imported pork.

    "We might have been better able to weather the tariff rate increase (back in 2016) than we can now," said Joe Schuele, a spokesman for the U.S. Meat Export Federation, a trade association. "You've got a lot of suppliers — the European Union, Canada, Brazil, and the U.S. — competing for a tighter space."

    He continued, "That makes it an even more difficult situation than if it had come about in 2016 when China had really a record need for imported pork."

    China ranked as the second-largest volume market for U.S. hog producers last year, and in export value totaled about $1.1 billion, according to the federation. Mexico was the largest volume market last year, and in export value totaled $1.5 billion, slightly behind Japan.
    continued next post
    Gene Ching
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  12. #57
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    Continued from previous post

    'We are the casualty'


    Chuck Berman | Tribune News Service | Getty Images
    A farmer shows his Illini breed pigs, which will go to market in Polo, Illinois.

    The Mexican and Chinese markets have been seen as especially important to the U.S. pork producers because they have purchased product that Americans typically don't buy, including raw hams and "variety meats" like tongue, ears, snout and heart.

    However, it's no surprise that Mexico has been looking to other global suppliers for pork, such as Brazil, Chile and the European Union. The country has other agricultural product concerns amid the North American Free Trade Agreement renegotiation talks. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the president-elect of Mexico, has been advocating a reduction in dependence on U.S. farm imports.

    "Mexico and China are about 40 percent of total exports, so those are critical markets and it's a significant concern with U.S. pork," said Jim Monroe, a spokesman for the National Pork Producers Council, a trade group.

    "The longer these trade disputes go on, and the cloud of uncertainty remains over the industry, it's going to have real negative financial consequences for U.S. pork producers," Monroe said. "It's a shame, because we support so many jobs, and when we can compete on a level playing field around the world we do extremely well."

    In 2017, the average value of a hog was $147 — and of that amount almost $54 of the total value was driven by exports, according to Monroe. He said about 550,000 jobs are tied to the pork sector and 110,000 of them are directly tied to exports.

    David Maloni, executive vice president of analytics for ArrowStream, a Chicago-based food service supply chain technology company, said he believes the tariffs are short term and "more tactical" in nature, useful in the broader context of forcing key countries to negotiate on trade.

    "Our advice is don't get too wrapped up in politics, but see it as a major buying opportunity for commodities," he added.

    Trump has previously offered to make it up to farmers, and USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue has spoken several times about Trump instructing him to craft a plan to help protect farmers and agricultural businesses.

    However, producers like Maschhoff aren't looking for farm subsidies from the federal government. He told CNBC that the current programs are not for pork and beef producers, but focused mostly on dairy and grains.

    "We want to compete and be able to sell abroad and make sure our government knocks down trade barriers," he said. "All we've accomplished is getting more trade barriers. We are the casualty and predicted it from day one."
    China tariffs may have a profound effect on the martial arts supply industry. The PRC produces the bulk of martial arts gear, not just for Chinese styles, but for Japanese too. So far, there hasn't been an issue, but there are so many products that might be affected if this trade war comes to pass.
    Gene Ching
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  13. #58
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    I think this may end up being a "smoke & mirrors" campaign by the Trump administration as an exercise in shaking the tree to see what all may fall out of it's branches. Likely there will be time limits in place for imposed tariffs so things can return to business as usual after Mid-Term Elections and of course, Trump's re-election. Keeping his detractors off-balance while he is in office is what Trump seems comfortable with, even if he has to sacrifice a few honey-baked hams to achieve his agendas. Trump is a undisputed scoundrel by nature.
    Last edited by PalmStriker; 07-05-2018 at 02:41 PM.

  14. #59
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    Bacon for left-behind children

    Top pupils bring home the bacon as Chinese primary school hands out unusual academic prizes
    Principal uses money from donor to give 50 students 600g of pork for their outstanding performance at rural school where many are ‘left-behind children’

    PUBLISHED : Sunday, 08 July, 2018, 3:43pm
    UPDATED : Sunday, 08 July, 2018, 3:43pm
    Kinling Lo
    https://twitter.com/kinlinglo

    Top pupils at a rural primary school in southern China went home not just with certificates last week but something more meaty to share with their families – a cut of pork.

    Fifty children were given 1 catty (600g) of pork for their outstanding performance on the last day of school on Friday in the village of Dudongxiang, in Guangxi, Liuzhou Wenbao reported on Saturday.

    The practical reward earned a tick of approval from internet users after photos of the beaming children with their certificates and pork dangling from red string were shared on social media platform Weibo.


    Photos of the beaming children with their certificates and pork were shared on social media. Photo: Thepaper.cn

    The school principal, identified only by his surname Zhang, said a donor from Beijing, Yang Qian, had given the school in Sanjiang county 1,425 yuan (US$215) to spend on awards for academic excellence. So he decided to use it to buy the pork from local farmers who were struggling financially.

    “In the past, we have given students cash prizes to recognise outstanding performance, and some pupils have used the money themselves and not told their parents about it,” Zhang told local news website Lzgd.com.

    Zhang said he hoped that by sending the pupils home with something to feed the family, they would appreciate their children’s achievements more.


    Ninety per cent of the pupils at the primary school in rural Guangxi are “left-behind children”. Photo: Thepaper.cn

    Ninety per cent of the school’s 178 pupils are “left-behind children” from poor families, he told the news outlet.

    There are some 61 million of these children in China, whose parents – either one or both – have left their rural homes to find jobs as migrant workers in the cities. They account for about 22 per cent of all children in the country, according to a 2013 report by the All-China Women’s Federation.

    “I’m feeling happy but also sad for these children,” one person wrote on Weibo, referring to their plight as left-behind children.

    “This is a very down-to-earth gift! Very practical,” another said.
    Such a strange and sad story.
    Gene Ching
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  15. #60
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    gross

    ...nearly half a billion gross.
    Jury tells pork giant to pay $473.5M in nuisance lawsuit
    By ALEX DEROSIER and EMERY P. DALESIO
    Aug. 03, 2018



    RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A federal jury decided Friday that the world’s largest pork producer should pay $473.5 million to neighbors of three North Carolina industrial-scale hog farms for unreasonable nuisances they suffered from odors, flies and rumbling trucks

    The jury found that Smithfield Foods owes compensation to six neighbors who complained in their lawsuit that the company failed to stop “the obnoxious, recurrent odors and other causes of nuisance” resulting from closely packed hogs, which “generate many times more sewage than entire towns.”

    The jury awarded $23.5 million in compensatory damages and $450 million in punitive damages, which will be reduced to a total of $94 million under limits in state law.

    The case comes after two previous, related lawsuits rocked agribusiness in the country’s No. 2 pork-producing state. Juries in those two cases awarded damages of about $75 million intended to punish Smithfield, though those amounts also were required to be cut.

    North Carolina legislators reacted by adopting new barriers against nuisance lawsuits that all but eliminate the ability of neighbors to sue Smithfield Foods or any other agribusiness. Critics billed the legislation as an attack on private property rights in order to protect a well-heeled industry.

    U.S. Sen Thom Tillis and U.S. Rep. David Rouzer suggested they might seek national legislation after hearing Friday from agribusiness executives and agriculture officials from North Carolina, Georgia, Delaware and Texas in Raleigh.

    “Today’s nuisance lawsuits that are destroying livelihoods and communities in North Carolina are the tip of the iceberg for what is to come absent a well-informed public and good public policy,” Rouzer said in a prepared statement Thursday. “This is a very slippery slope that threatens the very existence of every form of agriculture nationwide.”

    Industry group the North Carolina Pork Council decried the jury’s decision in a statement warning that it could lead to more lawsuits across the country.

    “This verdict will spread from eastern North Carolina to all corners of American agriculture,” the group said, calling for an appeal of the decision they described as unfair and unjust.

    Environmental advocates said there’s good reason pork producers have been getting hit with penalties.

    “These juries are repeatedly seeing problems with the kind of waste management that’s used,” said Cassie Gavin, a lobbyist with the North Carolina Sierra Club. “Clearly it’s time for the state and the industry to take a hard look at their waste management and modernize it so the public is protected.”

    The Pender County, North Carolina, farms at the center of the lawsuit held thousands of hogs owned by a Smithfield Foods subsidiary. Smithfield was sued because plaintiffs’ lawyers said the company used strict contracts to dictate how farmers raised Smithfield’s animals.

    One neighbor who was not part of the suit compared the waste stench to long-dead corpses he found during his career as a police officer and firefighter, news outlets reported. Wesley Sewell testified that he bought his house out of foreclosure without realizing the hog operations were nearby and sometimes fled to another home when the smells were too strong.

    Lawyers for the neighbors said Smithfield hasn’t taken measures that would minimize the nuisances, for example by sending trucks along a back road to pick up hogs for slaughter in the middle of the night instead of rumbling past sleeping homes. Nor has the company covered the waste pits or otherwise tried to capture the smell and bacteria resulting from pooling liquefied waste, lawyers for the neighbors said. The company has done that in Missouri and Colorado, attorneys said.

    The predominant method of handling hog waste in North Carolina is collecting it in open-air pits that are emptied by spraying liquid excrement on farm fields. The method was banned at new livestock operations in 1997, when industrial-scale hog operations began to be planned near the Pinehurst golf resort two years before it would host the U.S. Open tournament.

    Smithfield has continued using the low-cost method because it helps the company produce pork for less than in China, lawyers for the neighbors said. Smithfield is owned by Hong Kong-headquartered WH Group, which posted profits of about $1 billion last year.

    ____

    Follow Emery P. Dalesio on Twitter at http://twitter.com/emerydalesio . His work can be found at https://apnews.com/search/emery%20dalesio
    ___

    This story has been corrected to show six neighbors will receive compensation, not 16.
    Gene Ching
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