Smithfield Pork has been bought by the Chinese for 4.7billion. You probably knew that already. They call it a "merger" and I'm guessing that is only a semantics loophole to get around food regulations for import/export. Both sides are saying that it's merely to help fill that giant pork eating middle class that's blooming in China. But what of the 16,000 dead pigs that were thrown in the river threatening the water supply to Shanghai? Hardly a pig shortage in China. Or maybe there's a shortage of healthy, edible, non toxic, non diseased pigs in China. That's different. So they're taking ours. We only eat $13billion worth of pork each year, what do we need with hogs in the U.S.? Oh, but the pollution and environmental damage that comes from GIANT pork processing? We can keep that. For all the tongue waggers who demand we "bring back American jobs"...here ya go. Suit up for your 14 hour shift at the pig slaughterhouse. Yay!
We haven't been importing meats from China. YET. Seafood, yes. But their meats haven't been cleared. Unless it's an ingredient in something processed. I'll bet with a new "American based" Chinese owned company like Smithfield, they'll be able to slide some of their dirty pigs over to us. Maybe a secondary market like sausage, using black market pigs which have already died and aren't allowable under food law, technically, but it's a common practice in China.
