America's mass hog cull begins with meat to rot in landfills

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: Bloomberg

The mass culling of America’s hog herd is starting as a wave of shutdowns at processing plants creates livestock gluts that farmers can no longer sustain.

Starting Wednesday, about 13,000 pigs a day will be killed at a JBS SA slaughterhouse in Minnesota, according to U.S. Representative Collin Peterson. Rather than cuts being turned into hams and bacon for stay-at-home shoppers, the carcasses may be dumped in landfills or go to rendering plants.

The culling shows the disconnect that’s occurring as the pandemic sickens workers just as consumers stock up on meat. Dairy farmers are pouring away milk that can’t be sold to processors, broiler operations have been breaking eggs to reduce supplies and some fruit and vegetables are rotting in fields amid labor and distribution disruptions.

“We don’t want to euthanize hogs, but we’ve got no choice,” Peterson, who is chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, told reporters on a conference call. “I asked them to do it. So if people are upset, they can be upset with me.”

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/americas-mass-hog-cull-begins-with-meat-to-rot-in-landfills/ar-BB13khnw?li=BBnbfcN&ocid=hplocalnews

[Freethinker65]

1. So taxpayers will bail out these farmers.

We might as well get the meat to market or food pantries if we end up subsidizing farmers for their losses anyway.

[AtheistCrusader]

3. The chain is broken. Can't get the meat to market if the processors are down.

In my entire neighborhood, I'm probably the only person who even could cut and wrap a whole hog, and I would do it badly.

[paleotn]

4. It has to be processed first.

and those who do the processing either can't our won't make their workplaces safe for their employees. It's not the farmer's fault and dividing "deserving" verses "undeserving" without knowledge and context isn't helpful. It also shows a lack of knowledge of just who farms and who doesn't. I say that because I'm surrounded by farmers. Dairy guys mostly. Many are "corporate" as we like to throw around because their ops are set up as LLC's, etc. BUT the bulk of these same LLC farmers have been farming the same land for 3, 4, 5 and 6 generations. One I know of, his family has owned much of the same land since the American Revolution. So it's easy to stereotype them if they're mythical to you. A whole lot different when you meet them face to face at the local gas and go. Or wave as they drive by on their tractor hauling hay. That's my world. Maybe it's different in Iowa or Illinois or California. But around here dairy guys have been crippled with low milk prices for at least 4 years now. Then came the tariff wars. Now this. But hey...if you want food to just magically fall from the sky, well go right ahead.

[pbmus]

21. Excellent time for vegetarians...

[xxqqqzme]

25. Meat used to

arrive at grocery stores as a half carcass. Then real butchers cut it up. I know because my dad was a butcher for Kroger, Lucky's, and Von's. He was trained under the GI bill. There are not many in the Meat Department who can take a carcass apart now.

Today meat is delivered wrapped in plastic on a styrofoam tray straight from the 'processing' plant. The chain was broken years ago.

[bucolic_frolic]

10. Oh, you will pay ... twice - you will pay as a taxpayer, and pay as a consumer

When the system is up and running again, all the businesses along the way will need higher prices to recoup costs.

[AtheistCrusader]

2. This is incredibly unfortuante, and illustrates the farm-to-table gap we've built with all these

'efficiencies' over the decades.

There isn't even an alternative.

[MissB]

6. Right. There was a potato farmer in Idaho

That opened up his mound of potatoes to come and get as many as they wanted.

Can’t really do that with hogs.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

5. Yet another aspect of the pandemic for which trumpie takes no responsibility.

[ArizonaLib]

7. They are trying to blame liberals who hate Trump because they are forced to shut down

'See liberals? These hogs wouldn't need to die if we could open everything up'

THIS IS A GREAT REASON TO GO VEGETARIAN

[bucolic_frolic]

8. This kind of massive disposal of unused food by products is a massive environmental problem

Seems to my memory that Ben & Jerry's was sued in Vermont for disposing of byproducts in the manufacture of ice cream, I think it was whey - they had pits filled with the stuff. This was 25 years ago

[rickyhall]

9. The wonders of capitalism

[Steelrolled]

11. Hard to tell how widespread this problem is. nt

[gab13by13]

12. The CDC has guidelines

how to operate these facilities, but they made them voluntary. Thousands of workers are getting sick and many are dying.

The plants wouldn't make as much profit though if they put in place those safety measures.

[Liberty Belle]

23. They're not making any profit now. Maybe a bad choice on their part, driven by greed.

[Baitball Blogger]

13. This should not be happening.

We just don't know how to rearrange our priorities fast enough.

[GriffenRamsey]

14. Use the WPA.

Get the food where it needs to go.

[Coventina]

15. The inhumane horror of the practice of raising animals for slaughter is laid bare.

With no slaughterhouse, the animal still has to die.

[IronLionZion]

16. We could always eat the rich

since sacrifices must be made during desperate times

[catchnrelease]

17. I know it would cost

Could at least some of the animals be shipped to say Canada? Mexico? At least they would not be wasted. Offer them to people that might have, say, a local butcher that could do a few for communities that would want them. That is done for deer and people that raise a steer or two etc. I know this would be a drop in the bucket if they are going to kill (euthanize is such an nice word to use) 13,000/day. But the waste compounds the horror.

I saw yesterday that Cuomo is having New York work with dairy farmers to get some of their milk made into cheese and yogurt to be distributed to people in need of food. There was some other product he was working with but I can't recall it now. The leaders need to think outside of the box to deal with these issues. (Not expecting that from the White House crew though)

[erpowers]

22. Thinking Something Similar

I was wondering if the government could try to find foreign buyers for the animals. I was mainly thinking China. I had heard that Chinese people love pork. How about try to get the Chinese government to buy at least some of the larger pigs? Then see if other countries would be willing to buy some of the remaining pigs. As another option, how about trying to sell some of the pigs to Americans who could butcher them and use the meat? As for the little pigs, how about asking Americans with large enough yards to buy the pigs, raise them temporarily, and then sell them back to the farmers once demand has increased? Also, could the federal government take some of the pigs (large and small) and temporarily house them until demand picks up?

[Bantamfancier]

26. There's a big sticking point

with China buying pork.

They will not accept any that has been fed ractopamine.

[byronius]

18. Token vegan raising my hand here.

Yeah. Think about how I perceive this. Just for a moment.

I'm an American. I've raised two strong and ethical children. I was a consumer of meat for thirty years, ten of those with no qualm about meat whatsoever. Born in Texas, after all.

But -- if I may -- offer a small window into how this news impacts me personally: The fact is that pigs form families. Pigs can count. Pigs can do basic math and solve logic problems. Pigs can strategize.

Consciousness is a continuum. This was the conclusion of a large-scale long-term British scientific study, not any wild-eyed utterance of animal activists. Consciousness is a product of neural complexity, and pigs possess quite complex brains. It is possible there have been pigs possessing more complex brains than some human beings.

Imagine, just for a moment if you will, that you accept the statements contained in these last two paragraphs. I'm very aware that the ability to acknowledge these statements as true is inversely proportional to one's consumption of pork. I have been right there, brother, so I understand.

That's why I don't judge people about this issue. It's a 'natural' condition. But -- here on the other side, after all this time, I feel:

Horror. Empathy for these creatures and the panic they feel. Anger at their mistreatment and degradation.

It's all so, so wrong. I'd prefer to live in a civilization where this practice was made wholly illegal and viewed as barbaric primitivism.

Alas, I do not. But I will vote that way for the rest of my life, insofar as I can deduce the democratic calculus that might lead me there.

Anyway. That's what I had to say.

[a la izquierda]

24. I'm vegan too.

I’m heartbroken and horrified by this.

[Coventina]

27. Thank you for writing this. Agree completely. It's horrific.

[OneGrassRoot]

29. With you. Thank you. n/t

[Intronautical1]

30. Me too

[jeffreyi]

19. Euthanize? Yeah, right.

More like, whatever is expeditious, too bad if they suffer.

[Talitha]

20. Things would be different if the liar-in-chief read his briefings and took them seriously.

Things would be different if he hadn't acted like a vindictive little bitch and dissolved OUR pandemic response team 2 years ago.

Everything he touches dies.

[renate]

28. when my husband joined me in becoming vegetarian, I threw out some chicken breasts from the freezer

And I cried. Because I was so sad at the idea of these little chickens dying for literally nothing. Not even to be eaten. Just killed and then thrown away.

This is beyond tears. It's too much. It's just heartbreaking.