[KaiserJeep]

No, I'm not talking about "Pork" spending in Congress, we still have plenty of that.

Last month on Thursday September 26th I went to my local supermarket, and on my shopping list was sliced ham, intended for sandwiches and omelets. There was no sliced ham in the store. Every brand was out of stock, as were select other pork products such as certain sausages and some premium brands of bacon. I thought it was odd, but I came back the following Thursday, and still could not buy sliced ham. The third Thursday (just 2 days ago) , they had fresh uncured hams of the store brand. Still no sliced ham to this day. (I eventually found some sliced ham by buying a four pound package at Costco, and freezing 3 pounds - so I'm set for a while.)

The above image represents some of the more well-known Smithfield Foods brands of pork.

My wife the CPA explained what was going on. In June of this year, Chinese firm Shuanghui International started the acquisition process for the venerable Virginia-based Smithfield Foods, the largest pork producer in the US. On September 24, Smithfield's shareholders approved the acquisition, and overnight trucks already en route to my local supermarket from Smithfield's meat processing plants were diverted to ports where the premium pork products were shipped to China.

This was in one bite 27% of the pork produced in the US. The Chinese eat lots more pork than we do, I suppose more people would have noticed this if it had been beef (the USA's favorite meat) versus pork. But the Chinese prefer pork and there have been several scandals about domestic Chinese pork lately, they very much prefer imported pork when available, and the average Chinese has doubled his meat consumption in the last decade.

I know I'm only talking about a spot shortage, and other US pork suppliers will soon fill in the hole left by Smithfield's products at my local supermarket chain. But this surprised me when it happened, and caused me to wonder: Could there come a time when most of the food grown and produced in America is exported, even though we need it here?

[Shaved Monkey]

Supply and demand Capitalism in a free market global economy,just what the US(West) wished for.

[wildbourgman]

Supply and demand Capitalism in a free market global economy,just what the US(West) wished for.

See the thread on Chinese oil production/refinery deals. It seems that commie government has the advantage of directly signing contracts, rather than invading countries for what it needs.

Not invading countries for what it needs? WTF, that's no way to run a free market economy!

[Keith_McClary]

Supply and demand Capitalism in a free market global economy,just what the US(West) wished for.

See the thread on Chinese oil production/refinery deals. It seems that commie government has the advantage of directly signing contracts, rather than invading countries for what it needs.

Not invading countries for what it needs? WTF, that's no way to run a free market economy!

Next they'll figure out about creating money to pay for it.

[wildbourgman]

We left the gold standard. Previously we left the grain standard. Perhaps we are headed back in that direction?

I read somewhere that gold and wheat had been the same standard for thousands of years being fairly coupled from Roman times until the 1950's. I'm going to try to find that story.

[ROCKMAN]

Actually there is no pork shortage. There's plenty of pork in Texas...just last night had a great roast. The real issue is "where's the meat". The problem is all those folks out there who are too lazy to get off their butts and earn what it takes to buy that meat. Same situation with oil: there is no shortage. Greece has a struggling economy not because there's a shortage of oil. They also won't get off their collective butts to earn it. If the commie Chinese and us dumb Texans can do it anyone can. LoL. Interesting reaction by Americans being out bid for something we want. Next thing you know we'll get tanked up on ouzo and begin demonstrating it the streets over the "pork gap".

Think I'll have some baby back ribs tonight.

[rollin]

There is no shortage of pork in my area, although all meat and cheese products are getting very expensive. One pound of meat costs about as much as many workers make in an hour and many more in an hour and a half.
The pigs and cattle grow right in my town, yet prices seem to be controlled from elsewhere.

Since when did the US become an Asian suburb? Did they give us schools and roads like they do in other countries?

[KaiserJeep]

In case you did not know this, the Chinese have been buying T-bills for years, a practice fed by our huge trade imbalance. Lately they have been putting money into US companies and US real estate as a hedge against the inflation of US currency. Texas and Louisiana have been the two states that they particularly target because most of the rice grown in the US comes from there.

Look around you, chances are excellent that any large tracts of land sold recently are now owned by China. The Smithfield sale above is notable because large portions of Virginia, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas, and Arkansas were part of that sale. Smithfield Foods was a rather large corporate farming venture.

Ironic that the US taste for cheap electronic tech and solar panels is resulting in large parts of our country being sold to offshore investors. The Chinese seem to be buying farmland in particular, and Japan and Korea have purchased large ranches in Texas to grow that "Wagu" beef.

The flipside is that the Chinese hunger for energy has recently caused the US to become the #1 coal exporter while China is the #1 coal importer. We are selling the large supplies of Western US "soft" coal, which is too expensive to burn here because it has much higher stack effluents than the anthracites and other hard coals the US burns. China is burning so much of the stuff that the pollution is detectable on the West Coast of the US.

[ROCKMAN]

"Did they give us schools and roads like they do in other countries". Didn't give us that stuff but along with all the other Tbill buyers loaned us the monies to build them. They've done it for a price but with out all those lenders the gov't couldn't function. At least that's what the POTUS says daily. At least by buying US companies and lands China is repatriating some of our interest back to us. Better for them to use the monies for that then buying Mexican oil that's currently going to US refineries.

[KaiserJeep]

Nobody is addressing my real question from post #1. Assume that the present trend continues, and we continue to satisfy our taste for high tech and cheap consumer goods by buying Chinese products. Assume that they continue to buy US farms and meat producers, and end up owning a lot of them, perhaps even a majority share of the food produced in the US.

Comes the crash after the oil peak, do they starve, or do we, while they export food grown here?

[Keith_McClary]

I looked up "spot pork" for you:

The mandarins of the EU have at last awarded protected status to Gloucester Old Spot pork. Which rare breeds or traditional foods would you like to see recognised?

[radon1]

Sliced ham is out of stock.
Time to bomb someone.

Irony aside, meat shortages may arise, primarily, not because the Chinese import the stuff, but because the US exports it. So, this is not an issue of US vs China, this is an issue of US vs US - as it is with any other country. Unless China totally overruns that country, of course.

[ROCKMAN]

So the Chinese can import a lot of American pork because they can pay more then some Americans. And Americans can import a lot of Mexican oil because we can pay more then some Mexicans. What exact is the difference in these dynamics? Is this another case of "situational ethics"? LOL

[wildbourgman]

Unless you tie this to greater currency and mancr economic problems with America's dollar possibly losing it's reserve currency status and/or default, then this is no big deal. If pork prices go up we'll raise more pigs. Easy enough huh?

[PrestonSturges]

England had an empire that controlled global trade. And one day the world just sort of broke up with them, because they realized they did not need England.