Posted on 10/22/2019 8:06:55 PM PDT by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget
The price of pork continues to surge across China because of supply shortages driven by the poor handling of African swine fever Chinese people are looking for alternatives, including dog and rabbit, as the country’s most popular meat becomes unaffordable
African swine fever has swept through China’s pig population, leading to mass culls that are expected to take years to recover from. Photo: AFPAfrican swine fever has swept through China’s pig population, leading to mass culls that are expected to take years to recover from. Photo: AFP African swine fever has swept through China’s pig population, leading to mass culls that are expected to take years to recover from. Photo: AFP
Like most small restaurants in this rural part of Wan’an county in Jiangxi province, the Little Wealth God does not have a menu. Diners go directly to the kitchen to pick vegetables, fish and raw meat and let the chef know how they would like them cooked.
But due to its spiralling price, China’s most popular meat, pork, is nowhere to be seen. Instead, many locals are opting for a traditional dish that had lost appeal until recently.
“Why not choose dog meat if you want some meat?” the waiter recommended, adding high prices meant most diners no longer felt it worthwhile to order pork. Renewed interest in dog meat is just one of the side-effects that a massive pork shortage , caused by the African swine fever epidemic, has created across China, the world’s largest producer and consumer of pork, which accounts for more than half of the meat eaten globally.
As pork prices continue to soar, discontent is growing among the public, especially among low-income groups. It is also dampening consumer sentiment and belies Beijing’s attempts to convince people of the country’s bright economic future.
In a supermarket in the county’s town centre, the price of lean pork was 72 yuan (US$10) per kilogram while pork rib cost 74 yuan (US$10.50) a kilogram – more than double what was being charged a year ago and at least as high as prices in major cities like Shanghai and Beijing.
“Pork only costed a dozen yuan per 500 grams last year, now it's more than 30 yuan,” said Liang Meilu, who runs five small kindergartens across the county.
Given consumers’ reluctance to buy pork at that price, the supermarket has a promotion on rabbit, selling it nearly two dollars cheaper than usual at 43.6 yuan (US6.50) per kilogram. The only pork item less expensive is a leg bone with almost no meat attached. It's not only expensive, but it’s also hard to purchase pork meat in rural village Liu Gang
The sharp rise in the price of pork is especially hard for residents of Wan’ an, which was officially labelled as a “county of poverty” by Beijing until 2018. The average salary is about 2,500 yuan (US$353) a month – a third to a quarter less than those in large Chinese cities.
At wet markets outside Wana’an’s town centre, most pork vendors have gone out of business because few rural residents, whose incomes are even lower than the county average, can afford it, according to Liu Gang, a villager in Jian county in Jiangxi.
“It's not only expensive, but it’s also hard to purchase pork meat in rural villages,” Liu said. “Many pigs died in nearby pig farms due to African swine fever earlier this year.” And there is no sign China’s pork crisis will be over any time soon. China’s National Bureau of Statistics said the average price of pork nationwide shot up 69 per cent in September from a year earlier, pushing the consumer price index up to 3 per cent , the limit of Beijing’s inflation tolerance for 2019. Prices are expected to rise further given the continued decline in the country’s stock of pigs.
African swine fever has swept through China’s pig population, leading to mass culls that are expected to take years to recover from.
The country’s live hog population, which accounted for about half of the global total in 2018, had fallen 41.1 per cent at the end of September from a year earlier, according to a survey of 400 counties by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. It is unclear how much further it will fall before it bottoms out.
The Chinese government has instituted emergency measures to boost pig supply, trying desperately to help farmers expand production while scrambling to import pork to sure up supply. China’s imports of pork rose 43.6 per cent to 1.32 million tonnes in the first nine months of this year, according to China’s General Administration of Customs.
But China’s demand for pork is so large that not even global supply can fill the gap, forcing residents like those in Wan’an to treat the meat as a luxury for a long time to come.
Fact, The Lewis and Clark expedition preferred dog over fresh salmon when trading for food with the Colombia River tribes.
LOL!
Just had a “triple post for no reason” myself.
Funny how the stomach doesn’t care who is a friend, and who isn’t
I posted this response once. Once only. But, after posting it took forever and then I got an error message from NJINX.
I reloaded the FR website and discovered it had posted 3 times.
In fact I have gotten 3 NJINX error messages on FreeRepublic this evening. Something is wrong with an argument.
Mrs. Smith, I’m afraid I don’t understand your last sentence at all.
I have never heard that phrase. What does it mean?
PS, if this posts 3 times it’s not my fault!
Yet
It’s just a basic truth of Mankind and it’s stomach...
You don’t like Muslims telling you how to behave but you want to tell the Chinese what to eat. I think it is a sort of diversity I can live with as long as they practice it in their country.
Must be a regional saying that people from your region inherently understand.
I don’t understand your original comment and I certainly don’t understand your response to my request for explanation.
“Mankind and it’s stomach” is a meaningless phrase to me.
My stomach is a part of my anatomy which serves to digest and absorb essential nutrients for the benefit of my body. What it has to do in relation to your comment I just don’t get.
No disrespect intended. Honestly.
Moving past the part where we’re speaking in terms of what most Americans view as their pets....
Most dogs are beaten or tortured immediately prior to being killed because those who eat dog believe the dogs flesh/meat is tender due to the stress of the beating.
Now, if you can get past that and are okay with animals being beaten.....
Then there is the way the dogs are being cared for as they are raised; stuffed in cages where they cannot even begin to move, not feed or cared for in any healthy way.
It’s interesting in that those same countries are often the countries that are so cavalier about abandoning female enfants and disabled enfants (of both sexes).
Rabbits? Don’t know if they are cared for any better than the dogs.
No, nothing regional.
My own statement.
Imagine you’ve been on a lifeboat with someone for days, and days...
What will your stomach think of them?
If you can’t, I’ll tell you. Your stomach will think they’re a meal.
I'd like the same thing to happen to the Chinese who do that. I would not care if they starved, they are so cruel to animals all over the world. They commit savage inhuman acts on dogs, cats, equines---anything that they can stuff in their mouths or use to "increase their virility". There are heartbreaking pictures on the internet of them removing live dogs from their cruelly tiny cages with long handled pincers, around the dog's neck or any part they can get the pincers on, with the dog screaming in pain. They tie up dogs and cats with their legs behind them and leave them in that horribly painful position until they hack them to death alive or throw them alive into vats of boiling water.
They are responsible for many species becoming endangered and regularly pay poachers to kill animals such as elephants, tigers, etc. to make their tribal version of Viagra--as if there aren't enough of them in the world already. From what I see here, they breed like roaches already. Frankly, when my neighbor spotted a cat in the window of the Chinese next door and then didn't see it thereafter, she and I were very worried about its health, or even if it was still alive.
You probably don’t know how pigs are treated at most farms and at slaughter house too.
For them dog is a farm animal. Some people has pigs for pets too. Does it mean we shouldn’t eat pig too?
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Ahh, OK, now I get it. Yes,you are correct. Humans are of high intelligence. Far superior to any other on this earth.
But, we still need sustenance. And, if push comes to shove we will eat what we must to survive.
People who have needed food have eaten far worse than dog to survive. Prisoners in solitary on highly restricted diets have eaten cockroaches, rats, whatever they could get their hands on.
Thank you for the descriptive explanation. I was totally baffled by your response before you took the time to explain.
iT’;S BEEN A LONB TIME SINCE I READ “WHITE FANG”.
Maybe it’s time I did again.
Er wot? With a gamy leg? </Monty Python>
Just had some delicious rabbit at a fine restaurant.
Concur. this is why i’m not worried about the chicoms taking over the world. Anybody who eats dogs has shit for brains. Just saw a story where the dog woke up an entire household that was burning down. All would have died were it not for the dog. Many stories like that.
Yes, mass produced cows, chickens, pigs etc are not treated well during their short lives before they are slaughtered. But none are man’s best friend.
I would never eat a dog. Or monkey brains for that matter.
This could solve Missouri’s feral hog / wild boar problem...
Just cook it well-done...
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