Ruin Your Barbecue: Learn About The Industry!

Footnoted:

As we head into the Fourth of July holiday and what will no doubt be a weekend full of BBQs, I can't seem to get a number that I saw in the 10K that Smithfield Foods (SFD) filed last week out of my head: their slaughter capacity in the U.S. has now reached 122,000 pigs a day at the company's nine different plants. Think about that for a minute (preferably when you're not about to tuck into a plate of baby-back ribs). Assuming those 9 plants run around the clock, that's 564 pigs each hour or over 44 million pigs a year. According to the USDA, a typical pig reaches slaughter weight at 240 to 270 lbs. And, as this article in Rolling Stone pointed out in December 2006, the average pig produces 3 times as much excrement as a human who weighs the same amount.

Those kind of numbers made me go back and look at Smithfield's 10Ks to see what the trend has been over the past decade. When the Rolling Stone article came out, it estimated Smithfield's slaughter capacity at 27 million a year, though the 10Ks would actually put the number for 2005 at 101,000 a day or 36.8 million hogs a year. Ten years ago, Smithfield's slaughter capacity was 62,000 a day or just over 22 million a year.

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Comments

[latinopride]

I think if the price of pork or other meats were to increase to twice or three times the current price, you will obviously see a substantial drop in demand, there has to be tighter regulations or a cap on the amount of animals to be slaughtered. I also think these giant food corporations ought to be broken up into much smaller ones. The problem here is in the mass production of food. We need to create a sustainable food culture in America, there has to be a shift away from the contemporary grocery store and into small food markets. But since corporations practically own the government, I don't see these things happening until some sort of an economic catastrophe.

[Portnoy]

Latinopride, how is the vegitarian lyfestyle treating you? Do you just avoid meat or do you go "All out"?

I say, if people like latinopride want to start charging OTHER people more for their food, people like Latinopride should pay more FIRST.

Me? I hunt my own food. Grilling up some nice venison chops tonight. Yum!

[handyallen1]

pearls before swine , they dont get it michelle