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Thread: Bacon!!!!!!

  1. #76
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    tradition for 1,400 years

    Anyone who has done even a cursory study of Buddhism and Daoism in China knows the longstanding tradition of meat substitutes. China is way ahead of the world on this one.

    The challenges of selling mock meat to China
    Firms trying to break into the market have to be aware that alternatives are far from new; mock meat has been part of the culinary tradition for 1,400 years and the nation already has numerous players with a wide range of products
    SCMP Editorial
    Published: 9:30pm, 27 Oct, 2019


    A pressing reason China may be a prime market for the alternative meat products would also seem to lie in the African swine fever outbreak that, since last year, has decimated the nation’s pork stocks. Photo: AFP

    China is a prime market for the alternative meat phenomenon sweeping the West. The nation ticks all the right boxes – plant-based options help ensure food security, are environmentally friendly and, as a result of the way industry trends have moved, are hi-tech. Three years ago, in an effort to ward off health problems such as cancers, obesity and diabetes, Beijing also issued dietary guidelines recommending a halving of meat consumption. But a pressing reason would also seem to lie in the African swine fever outbreak that, since last year, has decimated the nation’s pork stocks.
    A Hong Kong-based company is already making plans to sell its pork substitute products on the mainland. Prices of the white meat have skyrocketed as a result of the outbreak, which has forced the culling of, by some estimates, half of the country’s pigs. China is the world’s biggest pork consumer, accounting for 50 per cent of the global total. But the nation’s 1.4 billion people are lovers of all sorts of meat, last year consuming 86 million tonnes, more than any other country.
    Demand increased by 14 per cent between 2017 and 2018, in keeping with global trends that the wealthier a society gets, the more it can afford meat. Companies that produce alternatives promote products as being plant-based, which sounds healthy, and eating vegetables is claimed to be better than livestock, which are sometimes raised inhumanely and cause 14.5 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions. But firms trying to break into the Chinese market have to also be aware that alternatives are far from new; mock meat has been part of the culinary tradition for 1,400 years and the nation already has numerous players with a wide range of products. Nationwide sales of alternative meats are the biggest in the world.
    The industry is not new to China, but science means there have been innovations that improve productivity and taste. That does not necessarily also mean healthier products, nor ones that are less expensive. But in a world with a fast-growing population and rising appetite for meat, with Asia and Africa the biggest growth areas, governments have to look to sustainability. Encouraging and welcoming competition and promoting plant-based meat alternatives makes good sense.

    This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Selling mock meat to China is a challenge

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  2. #77
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    pig poop. it's what's for dinner.

    ‘Waiter, there’s excrement in my pig intestine,’ Chinese diner complains
    Offered about US$70 in compensation after finding nasty surprise in rice noodles, the customer holds out for US$4,000
    He challenges pork supplier’s manager to eat the offending material for the sum he was offered, after firm admits fault
    Mandy Zuo
    Published: 8:44pm, 16 Dec, 2019


    Wang discusses compensation with restaurant staff, who are shown a piece of the pig intestine containing excrement. Photo: Handout

    A restaurant customer in northeastern China is demanding higher compensation after he was served pig intestine filled with excrement at a well-known chain then offered a sum he considered inadequate, according to news video app PearVideo.
    The diner, identified only by his surname Wang, was enjoying a pot of rice noodles with pig intestine on Friday when he found a piece that was tougher to chew, he said.
    He complained to staff at the restaurant, a branch of Axiang Rice Noodles in a mall in Changchun, Jilin province, and it was established that there were pieces of excrement in the meal.
    An unnamed manager from the restaurant’s supplier told PearVideo in Sunday’s report that the supplier’s staff had failed to clean the intestine properly and that it would take full responsibility.
    The manager telephoned Wang, offering to compensate him with an amount equivalent to 10 times the value of the dish, in line with consumer rights regulations – which would give Wang up to 500 yuan (US$72).
    But Wang said he felt insulted by the offer and asked for 30,000 yuan (US$4,300). “I’d like to invite their boss to come over and have a try – I can pay him a few hundred yuan for every piece of excrement he eats,” Wang said.
    The supplier, a small pork business in eastern China, said it could not afford the amount Wang was asking for, especially with business suffering after an African swine fever epidemic that has decimated China’s hog herd.
    “He asked for 30,000 yuan, and later 20,000 yuan,” the manager said. “This year pork prices have been so high that we have barely made any profits. Under such circumstances, such a sum of compensation would be a big blow to a small business.”
    The report included a clip of Wang’s earlier complaint to a restaurant manager, alongside a piece of pig intestine containing a dark filling.
    “I want an apology,” Wang told PearVideo. “And if you do apologise, you should apologise to all consumers nationwide.”

    This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Man served with pig faeces wants more compensation
    There's about a month left of the Year of the Pig, then on to the Year of the Rat. This thread has had a good run.

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  3. #78
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    Wi

    It was actually the ginseng angle of this story that caught my attention. I wonder where we are at with this now?


    In this Friday, Oct. 11, 2019, file photo, President Donald Trump watches as Chinese Vice Premier Liu He speaks to U.S. Trade representative Robert Lighthizer, right, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. Andrew Harnik/AP Photo

    Wisconsin Farmers Await Chinese Trade Deal Details On Ginseng, Pork, More
    'Phase One' Of A Trade Deal Was Announced Dec. 13, But So Far Few Details Are Known
    By Rob Mentzer
    Published: Tuesday, December 24, 2019, 6:20am
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    Wisconsin farmers hope the "phase one" trade deal with China announced this month by President Donald Trump will mean increased exports in 2020.

    But until all the details are out, some are holding off on celebrating an end to the trade war.

    Escalating tariffs between the two nations have hurt exports of a number of Wisconsin-grown products, including pork, dairy products, cranberries and ginseng.

    The Dec. 13 announcement from the two governments of an initial deal helped to lower tensions, but those affected by the tariffs warn that "phase one" could be a long way from a finished deal.

    Will Hsu, president of Hsu's Ginseng Enterprises in Marathon County, analogized the situation to having an offer put in on a house. It marks the beginning of a new phase of negotiations, but can be a far cry from having completed a sale.

    "Without knowing the exact details, it's hard to know whether or not you're actually going to close the deal," Hsu said.

    United States ginseng is grown almost entirely in central Wisconsin, and the majority of the market for it is in China. The skyrocketing tariffs of the last 18 months have hit the industry especially hard, and have sent ginseng prices plunging from nearly $50 per pound of cultivated ginseng to closer to $20 per pound, Hsu said. That's because U.S. growers have to essentially deduct the added cost of Chinese tariffs from their own prices. Chinese consumers won't pay more for the root when Wisconsin ginseng is already a premium product there.

    Wisconsin's ginseng industry accounts for more than $30 million in revenues per year.

    Pork producers are also disproportionately affected by the tariffs. China is the world's largest consumer and importer of pork products.

    But Wisconsin farmers now face a 72 percent tariff on pork sales in China, said Keri Retallick, executive vice president of the Wisconsin Pork Association. That's wiped out their competitive advantage in the export market.

    "We need to do whatever we can to get (Wisconsin) pork back to the Chinese population," Retallick said.

    Wisconsin is the largest U.S. producer of cranberries, which saw a steep decline in exports to China amid high tariffs. The dairy industry was affected, too, though milk prices have recently begun to rise for other reasons related to the global market.

    Farmers of all of these products received some federal aid under a $28 billion federal aid program intended to compensate for losses related to the trade war. But in many cases available aid does not cover the losses, and to many farmers it would be an inferior option even if it did.

    "Our producers would much rather have their markets opened up, and to be able to get their revenues directly from what they've produced and sold on the market," Retallick said.

    Ginseng growers are eligible for federal aid payments under a formula that takes into account acreage and caps payments at $250,000. Hsu said that's too little to be all that significant for large growers, and aid payments haven't covered farmers' losses at virtually any scale.

    "Every single farmer would rather have gotten the market value that we were getting a year or two ago," Hsu said. "I've heard of some guys getting $30,000, $40,000 or $50,000, but their loss is probably three to five times what they're actually getting back from the government."

    The possibility of winding down the trade war was treated as good news by Retallick and Hsu. On Monday, China announced it would lower tariffs on hundreds of goods from other nations, a move understood as a response to domestic economic challenges.

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  4. #79
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    Remember swine flu?

    BUSINESS NEWS AUGUST 3, 2020 / 10:36 PM / UPDATED 12 HOURS AGO
    China's hog futures set to make debut, but faces big challenges
    Emily Chow
    6 MIN READ

    SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s long-awaited live hog futures contract is almost ready, offering a vital hedging tool for the world’s largest pork industry, which has been roiled by an African swine fever outbreak that devastated herds and sent pork prices soaring.


    FILE PHOTO: An employee works next to signs showing pork prices at a market in Beijing, China December 8, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo

    The country’s first live-animal physical-delivery contract has been planned for a decade, and is expected to be popular with domestic traders on the Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE).

    But complex delivery logistics, tight quality-control standards, a local lack of experience with futures contracts and a retail trading community that has wildly distorted other markets will be key challenges.

    China typically slaughters about 700 million pigs annually and produces more than 50 million tonnes of pork – about half of global output. Hog and pork producers have traditionally relied on contracts that define volume and delivery requirements, but have little control over or insight into costs, especially in future months.

    (GRAPHIC - China pork output vs world production: here)

    Reuters Graphic

    That lack of cost control was made clear by the country’s widespread outbreaks of African swine fever, which since 2018 have nearly halved the pig herd and disrupted hog and pork supplies throughout the country.

    Producers are now rebuilding the herd, which stands at 339.96 million head as of end-June, but average pork prices remain near record highs, making the launch of a transparent pricing and hedging tool a welcome development.
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  5. #80
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    Bacon!!!!!!

    I thought this might be an April Fool's thing, but the date is the 29th and they don't observe April Fools in Hong Kong.

    Hong Kong Heritage Pork successfully develops a new high-quality pig breed named "Tai Chi Pigs"
    Mon, March 29, 2021, 11:17 PM·3 min read
    HONG KONG, March 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Breeding pigs can be a relatively simple or complicated process. If the main ambition of a pig farm is to cut costs and increase the rate of breeding, there will be a sacrifice in quality. The goal of pig farm owners like John Lau Hon Kit, founder of Hong Kong Heritage Pork, is to breed high quality pigs using modern technology and special processes. This way, they can produce pork that meets the stringent requirements of Hong Kong consumers when it comes to taste, texture, and healthiness.


    Hong Kong Heritage Pork
    John Lau Hon Kit has combined the benefits Berkshire pigs, Danish Landrace pigs, and Spanish Durocs in his new breed of "Tai Chi Pigs". To do this, he specially imported high-quality specimens of each different pig breed into his Hong Kong pig farm. Although this increased costs, it made it far easier to control the purity and health of the pigs.

    Hong Kong people have always loved their pork and have high standards for the pork they consume. With lots of fat, the pork is rich in taste but very unhealthy. On the other hand, pork with little fat is lacking in flavour but better for consumer's health. The trick is finding the right balance.

    John Lau Hon Kit explains that Hong Kong Heritage Pork's breed of "Tai Chi Pigs" is the perfect balance between more fatty and more lean breeds. The meat is perfectly marbled with an even and modest distribution of fat, making it perfect for a wide range of culinary applications, including frying, steaming, and more.

    But producing high-quality local pig breeds is not the only thing important to John Lau Hon Kit and Hong Kong Heritage Pork. To produce the highest quality pork possible, he places great care and effort into the feeding process.

    The food used by Hong Kong Heritage Pork is a mix of premium corn imported from America and soybeans carefully selected by John Lau Hon Kit himself. This way, he is able to ensure that the pigs are fed a natural and nutritious mix certified by the European Union and suitable for feeding pigs growing in Hong Kong's climate. John Lau Hon Kit further brought in a feeding machine from Denmark that helps control and adjust the amount of feed given to the pigs, meaning they eat the right amount to grow in a healthy manner.

    Furthermore, John Lau Hon Kit has specially selected Sheung Shui and Kam Tin as sites to open his pig farms. One of the reasons behind this is to allow his pigs to drink mineral-rich water from the nearby Kai Kung Leng mountain range. In order to ensure the health of the pigs, this mountain water is first disinfected and then filtered before being given to the pigs. John Lau Hon Kit will also regularly send water samples to a laboratory for further testing.

    John Lau Hon Kit understands that the people of Hong Kong attach great importance to food safety. He regularly sends samples of his pork to well known third-party laboratories in Hong Kong and overseas to test for 18 types of antibiotics, 4 types of hormones, and several different types of heavy metals.

    Hong Kong Heritage Pork has received a certificate of safety from the prestigious CASTCO testing centre, proving the pork from "Tai Chi Pigs" is safe for consumption – something which is also pledged by both John Lau Hon Kit and Hong Kong Heritage Pork.

    For more information on John Lau Hon-kit and Hong Kong Heritage Pork, visit https://www.hkpork.com.

    SOURCE Hong Kong Heritage Pork
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  6. #81
    Quote Originally Posted by GeneChing View Post
    I noticed that price of bacon is really increasing lately due to American Swine Fever(ASF).

  7. #82
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    bacon bummer

    The US has a silent pig pandemic on its doorstep once again
    As America readies to protect its pork industry, the Dominican Republic has been accused of using an outbreak of African Swine Fever to wipe out smaller producers


    The Dominican Republic has announced the slaughter of tens of thousands of pigs after detecting outbreaks of African Swine Fever in pig farms across the country. Photograph: Ricardo Rojas/Reuters

    Milli Legrain
    @mlegrain
    Sun 17 Oct 2021 05.00 EDT

    A pandemic is silently sweeping across the globe – and it is not Covid-19. Since African Swine Fever (ASF) was confirmed in the Americas more than two months ago, the deadly pig disease is now on six continents and on the doorstep of the US.

    Samples taken in the Dominican Republic tested positive for ASF in July and in neighbouring Haiti in September.

    The virus does not affect humans or meat quality, but is an almost certain death sentence for pigs. The US pork industry – worth $23bn (£17bn) a year – is in a panic, Latin America is on alert, and pork producers in the Dominican Republic and Haiti are haunted by memories of the US-funded eradication of their entire pork population when ASF last hit more than 40 years ago.

    Rigoberto Echavarría, a Dominican pig farmer, is devastated by the loss of his entire herd in August after staff sent by the Ministry of Agriculture followed an initial government directive to kill all pigs on small farms in affected hotspots and those within a 5km radius of the outbreak. The slaughter happened without prior testing for the virus.

    Local reports say at least 1,000 pigs were killed that month in the province of Santiago Rodríguez, where Echavarría lives. But another farmer thinks the killings go beyond 10,000.

    Social media accounts show local people throwing stones at a government vehicle loaded with dead pigs protected by armed members of the military.

    Some small pork producers banded together to prevent the teams from reaching their farms.

    But for Echavarría, it was too late. His farm is in the north-west of the Dominican Republic, 70km from the border with Haiti, where some suspect the disease entered the island. But, like many in his province, he believes his 130 pigs were healthy, and questions whether larger farms are being targeted by the government programme in the same way. He asks: “Can the pigs of my rich friend not also get sick?”

    Speaking to the Guardian, an official said 73,000 pigs have been killed out of a pig population estimated at 1.8 million. The size of the farms affected has not been made public, but the numbers suggest the average farm had only 25 pigs.

    Dr Rafael Nuñez Mieses, director of animal health at the Ministry of Agriculture, attributes the destruction of small farmers’ herds without prior testing for the virus to an initial “lack of equipment”. The strategy later changed.

    Initially there was a policy to eliminate the small producers in order to contain the illness
    Dr Francisco Israel Brito, Dominican Federation of Pork Producers
    A government veterinarian in the province of Santiago Rodríguez, who asked to speak anonymously, says: “If the testing equipment had arrived earlier, we would not have had to sacrifice so many pigs.” He adds: “This is an area of small farms.”

    But an unpublished technical report obtained by the Guardian reveals that the directive to kill pigs on small farms without prior testing was part of a government plan to control ASF, backed by the International Regional Organization for Agricultural Health and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

    The document says: “Within a radius of 5 to 10 km of each outbreak, following the guidelines outlined in the emergency plan, all back yard farms should be sacrificed (not the industrial ones), independently of whether they are free of infection.”
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  8. #83
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    Continued from previous



    A farmer observes the remains of pigs that died of ASF, as the Dominican Republic announced the slaughter of tens of thousands of animals after detecting outbreaks across the country. Photograph: Ricardo Rojas/Reuters

    Dr Francisco Israel Brito, president of the Dominican Federation of Pork Producers, confirms this. “Initially there was a policy to eliminate the small producers in order to contain the illness,” he says. “But then it became clear that, even then, the larger farms couldn’t escape the virus since it was all over the country.

    “And the government realised that it was going to be very costly, so they decided to focus on the hotspot areas instead.”

    Farmers have been compensated for the killings at a market rate of 120 Dominican pesos/kg (US$ 2.13), but missteps from the Dominican government have not helped to ease farmers’ mistrust.

    The international community has been on alert for ASF for years. The Dominican Republic hosted an international conference in Punta Cana in 2018 where ASF was on the agenda. Samples, which had been taken as early as April, were not tested for ASF until July, giving the virus plenty of time to spread.

    The Dominican government was quick to point the finger at small farmers on the border in June. But an official report published later by the World Organisation for Animal Health says the country’s first outbreak was in April in the centre of the country, where the majority of industrial-scale pork farms are based.

    In a recent report, the international NGO Grain claims the Dominican government is taking advantage of the pig pandemic to eliminate smaller farms, following a similar pattern to that which it reported in China as a result of the ASF variant that has been ravaging states in the former Soviet Union since 2007 and which spread to Asia in 2018.


    A smallholder watches over her pigs. In the Dominican Republic many rural people keep pigs in their back yards for their own consumption. Photograph: Ricardo Rojas/Reuters

    The Dominican government’s rhetoric has fed the narrative that smaller producers operate illegally and lack the hygiene and nutrition standards to keep the disease at bay.

    In Latin America, traspatio – or back yard – pigs are traditionally reared a few at a time for self-consumption, tied to a pole at the back of a modest dwelling where they guzzle food scraps. In 1978, ASF allegedly reached the Dominican Republic via pork leftovers from a flight from Europe fed to a back yard pig outside the airport.

    The Dominican government classifies all 28,000 small and medium farms with varying hygiene and nutrition standards as back yard farms. But the small and medium farmers the Guardian spoke to did not feed their pigs on food scraps or let them roam on landfill sites. And they were aware of disease transmission risks.

    “Nobody works on this farm except me and one employee. Nobody else visits my farm,” says Echavarría.

    Nuñez Mieses acknowledges that “not more than 100 farms” in the whole country meet biosecurity protocols “as described in the manual”, adding: “This disease is an opportunity for the pork industry to organise itself.”

    Dr Francisco Israel Brito, president of Fedoporc, the Dominican federation of pork producers, confirms that the government was initially “protecting” the 400 or so industrial farms that produce 70% of all Dominican pork.

    But he also acknowledges that, much like the coronavirus, ASF does not discriminate, saying: “It affects the most humble and the most powerful alike.”


    Everyone hopes that a repeat of the 1979 US-sponsored eradication of pigs in the Dominican Republic won’t need to be repeated. Photograph: Ricardo Rojas/Reuters

    The US recently announced $500m in funding to support activities related to combating ASF in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, but a US outbreak is not unthinkable. More than 2 million Dominicans live in the US and the Dominican Republic is a popular destination for American tourists. ASF travels well in cured meat in luggage as well as in uncooked pork scraps on boats and aeroplanes.

    If the plan to contain the disease by focusing on small farmers fails in the Dominican Republic, then plan B, according to government sources who spoke to the Guardian, is to destroy the whole swine population, as in 1979, when a US-backed eradication took place, followed by one in Haiti in 1982. This would protect the US pork industry and generate a massive increase in the 27% of Dominican pork consumption that mainly comes from the US.

    Paul G Rudenberg, a US veterinarian who was part of the USAID effort to introduce pigs from Iowa to Haiti in the mid 1980s, doubts an eradication effort would be politically viable today. He says: “It may have been necessary. But it wasn’t run in the manner that was conducive to the benefit of the small farmer. As a result, it wreaked social economic havoc on Haiti.”

    A glimmer of hope lies in the recent development by the US of a potential candidate for a vaccine against ASF; 40 years later, it looks like Big Brother is again likely to call the shots.

    As for the small and medium sized farmers in the Dominican Republic, more than anything, what they don’t want is for certain farmers to get preferential treatment due to their size or government contacts.

    “As a pig farmer, I am never going to be in favour of eradication. But if they are going to slaughter some of them, they have to slaughter them all,” says Echavarría.
    Pig pandemic...
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  9. #84
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    The Bacon Law

    California's controversial animal cruelty 'bacon law' heading to the Supreme Court
    Andrew Chamings
    March 28, 2022

    The ballot measure sought to “prevent animal cruelty by phasing out extreme methods of farm animal confinement, which also threaten the health and safety of California consumers and increase the risk of food-borne illness.”
    judith wagner/Getty Images

    The United States Supreme Court said Monday it will review a challenge to a California law that forces pork producers to end “extreme methods” of confining pigs.

    California's contentious 'bacon law', Proposition 12, sought to improve living conditions for farm animals in the state, with the restrictions largely targeting the production of pork and eggs.

    Onlookers have characterized it as the strongest animal welfare law ever passed in the U.S. The ballot initiative — which was approved by nearly 63% of voters in 2018 — made metal enclosures that restrict pigs from turning around and battery cages that prevent hens from opening their wings illegal. The ballot measure sought to “prevent animal cruelty by phasing out extreme methods of farm animal confinement, which also threaten the health and safety of California consumers and increase the risk of food-borne illness.”

    The law became effective on Jan 1, 2022, but the state is currently allowing the continued sale of pork processed under the old rules.

    Meat industry trade groups warn that when the law is fully implemented it will fatten up supermarket bacon costs by 60% and lead to a meat shortage, while proponents say that's merely Big Meat squealing at increased costs.

    Two agricultural associations challenging the law — the National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation — say almost no farms satisfy those conditions. In their appeal they say the “massive costs of complying” with the law will “fall almost exclusively on out-of-state farmers” and that the costs will be passed on to consumers nationwide.

    The case is expected to be argued after the court begins its new term in October.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.


    Written By Andrew Chamings
    SFGATE Deputy Managing Editor Andrew Chamings was formerly Senior Editor at The Bold Italic and has written for The Atlantic, Vice and McSweeney's.
    Didn't even know about this and I'm Californian...
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  10. #85
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    Super Pigs

    Highly Intelligent and Possibly Invincible Super Pigs Are Invading America
    Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

    BY TIM NEWCOMB PUBLISHED: FEB 21, 2023
    [IMG]https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/images/superpig-1677004726.jpg?crop=1.00xw:1.00xh;0,0&resize=1200: *[/IMG]
    Getty Images

    A special breed of hybrid super pigs from Canada have started to travel south into the northern United States.
    The pigs pose a threat to native wildlife and may prove tough to eradicate.
    The spread of the pigs has only increased in recent years.


    A hybrid breed of super pigs—a mix of a domestic pig and a wild boar—is running wild in Canada. And now they have their sights set on the United States.

    Originally crossbred to help farmed pigs grow larger and tolerate the cold temperatures of Canada, a drop in the market about two decades ago led some farmers to let their hybrid pigs run free. Now they’re running very free, according to Field and Stream. The super pigs are coming south, likely heading to Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Michigan.

    The problem? The super pigs are proving hard to eradicate.

    MORE FROM POPULAR MECHANICS
    How Footballs Are Made

    “That they can survive in such a cold climate is one of the big surprises of this issue,” Ryan Brook, leader of the University of Saskatchewan’s Canadian Wild Pig Research Project, tells Field and Stream.

    The cold-hardiness of the hybrid pigs means they survive well. That means other native species don’t. Brook elaborates:

    “Wild hogs feed on anything. They gobble up tons and tons of goslings and ducklings in the spring. They can take down a whitetail deer, even an adult. Originally, it was like ‘wow, this is something we can hunt.’ But it’s become clear that they’re threatening our whitetail deer, elk, and especially, waterfowl. Not to mention the crop damage. The downsides outweigh any benefit wild hogs may have as a huntable species.”

    The super pigs have already traversed across the international border, dipping into at least North Dakota. So, expect an even greater occurrence as the hybrid population only grows. Like on public transit, if you see something, say something. The Squeal on Pigs website makes that even easier.

    The super pigs have become adept at fending off recreational hunters, sometimes with entire sounders (the term for a group of pigs, generally led by mature sows) turning nocturnal to avoid the hunting. Other times the sounders will disperse, making them harder to locate, or change their patterns and retreat to forests or wetlands.

    The best strategy at reigning in the super pigs has been employing the Judas Pig concept, which straps a GPS collar onto a pig to lead game officials to other pigs. Deception may be our only hope.


    TIM NEWCOMB
    Tim Newcomb is a journalist based in the Pacific Northwest. He covers stadiums, sneakers, gear, infrastructure, and more for a variety of publications, including Popular Mechanics. His favorite interviews have included sit-downs with Roger Federer in Switzerland, Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles, and Tinker Hatfield in Portland.
    The oddest thing about this story is that it's published in Popular Mechanics
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  11. #86
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    Pork flavoered coffee for Chinese New Year

    Pork flavored coffee is Starbucks’ newest China pitch

    By Jessie Yeung and Hassan Tayier, CNN
    3 minute read
    Published 2:38 AM EST, Tue February 20, 2024
    Hong Kong
    CNN

    Who doesn’t like a little braised pork with their coffee?

    Starbucks (SBUX) is betting on that unusual combination with a new drink released in China to mark the Lunar New Year. Dubbed the “Abundant Year Savory Latte,” the brand describes it as having an “interesting” flavor.

    The drink combines Dongpo Braised Pork Flavor Sauce with espresso and steamed milk, with extra pork sauce and pork breast meat for garnish, according to the Starbucks delivery app.

    The drink is priced at 68 yuan ($9.45), according to the app.

    Photos of the drink, posted on Chinese social media platform Weibo by the Shanghai Starbucks Reserve Roastery, show a drizzle of dark red sauce atop the latte foam — with a square slice of pork on a skewer resting on the mug rim.

    “Eating meat means prosperity in the coming year,” the roastery wrote on Weibo on February 5, days before the Lunar New Year began.

    It added that the drink brings “traditional New Year customs into coffee,” and creates “unexpected savory and sweet flavors.” The latte is available at Starbucks Reserve stores across the country.


    The drinks cost about $9.45. Courtesy Starbucks

    Lunar New Year is one of the biggest annual holidays in Asia. People across China travel back home during this period to celebrate with their families. Government data shows a total of 474 million trips were made within the mainland during this year’s travel season.

    And while the foods served at New Year feasts vary by region, braised pork makes a frequent appearance. Named after the ancient poet, painter and statesman Su Dongpo, Dongpo rou is a dish made from braised pork belly, rock sugar, soy sauce, yellow wine and other seasonings.

    The result is richly flavored and extremely tender cuts of pork that can easily be pried apart with chopsticks.

    China is the biggest branded coffee shop market in the world, according to a report released in December by World Coffee Portal, having overtaken the United States last year.

    Starbucks opened 785 outlets in the country in 2023, it said. China has long been one of the most important growth drivers for Starbucks, serving as its second biggest market worldwide and top overseas market.

    But it’s got stiff competition, including from Luckin Coffee. The Chinese startup is the country’s biggest coffee chain with over 13,000 outlets, and offers drinks at a much lower price point than its American competitor.

    The Starbucks pork latte has quickly gained traction on Chinese social media, with the topic viewed more than 476,000 times on Weibo by the time of publishing. Some users expressed curiosity, but others were skeptical, pointing to the high price point and questioning why they would drink the latte instead of eating real braised pork.

    “For 67 yuan, I could eat a plate of braised pork then go to Luckin and drink two lattes,” one Weibo user wrote.

    Another user quipped: “I would allow both (pork and coffee) to exist in my stomach at the same time, but not in my mouth at the same time.”

    Jiupai News, a site affiliated with the state-run Changjiang Daily, reported that the drink had already sold out at one store in Wuhan, with customers saying the flavor was “unique” with a dense, smooth mouthfeel.

    Starbucks also released other new flavors across China with a holiday theme in February, according to the Shanghai Reserve Roastery’s Weibo account, including a jujube macchiato inspired by new year’s rice cakes and an almond tofu macchiato.
    2024-Year-of-the-Dragon
    Bacon!!!!!!
    Coffee
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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