Pork producers call for new GIPSA rule

[Recursion]

Source: Feedstuffs

Delegates to the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) adopted policy positions at their annual business meeting Saturday that put the council on record that pork producers are opposed to the competitive markets rule proposed by the Grain Inspection, Packers & Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) last year and urged GIPSA to pull the rule and replace it with a rule that was ordered by Congress in the 2008 Farm Bill.

Delegates said the current GIPSA proposed rule "overreached" congressional intent to the extent that a number of provisions actually fail to consider the dynamics of a competitive marketplace and are contrary to law as set down by federal courts.

The 2008 farm law directed GIPSA to promulgate "a discrete set of regulations" to address competitive marketing, but its proposed rule (Feedstuffs, June 21, 2010) significantly exceeds its mandate and covers, among other things, practices that administrator Dudley Butler believes are unfair and unjustly deceptive or discriminatory in how packer/processors, including poultry company integrators, deal with livestock and poultry producers. Many provisions would abolish production and marketing practices that have increased meat and poultry quality and producer profitability while containing costs to consumers (Feedstuffs, Oct. 11 and 18, 2010).

Read more: http://www.feedstuffs.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=F4D1A9DFCD974EAD8CD5205E15C1CB42&nm=Breaking+News&type=news&mod=News&mid=A3D60400B4204079A76C4B1B129CB433&tier=3&nid=9FB006CFB62A4E0B9AD884D9BC3C914B

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OK, I know most people aren't ag policy geeks, but this is a big time for agriculture policy. There are new GIPSA rules (GIPSA is the agency that regulates a lot of areas of meat production) being discussed and industry is going absolutely crazy trying to prevent them. Obama ran on a full-out packer ban (meaning meat packers could not own the pigs and cows in farmers' fields -- basically sharecropping for the 21st century) and while GIPSA's proposed rules don't go quite that far they represent a huge step in that direction and greatly limit the packers' ability to control the entire market from birth to slaughterhouse.

So, the short version: the proposed rule makes it much more difficult for meat packers to screw farmers, and the meat packers therefor don't want this rule enacted.

[BeFree]

1. People still eat pigs?

Aren't pigs smarter than dogs?
Why not eat the lesser dogs then?

When people eat pig flesh, do they imagine the pig as a whole?
Or do they avoid thinking about what exactly it is they are eating?

I ask only because I don't eat pigs, so how the hell would I know?

[Recursion]

3. What I think when I eat pig

A. "This bacon is really good"

B. "This ham is really good"

C. "This pork is really good"

D. In the right dish, all of the above.

(And, I've eaten a pig that I've slaughtered, so I'm aware of what they are like when they are alive.)

Also, I'm not quite sure I follow your argument. Is intelligence the standard by which you judge what you do and don't eat?

[BeFree]

4. Standard?

Are there standards whereby we judge others by what they eat or don't eat?

Are there limits to what humans, at the TOP of the food chain, can and can't eat?

Who the heck do they think they are telling you what you should or shouldn't eat?
You want to eat pig flesh? Feel free. Go ahead. Be free.

[GillesDeleuze]

7. Standards? sure:

1. was it raised properly
2. was killed in a sanitary environment
3. was the meat stored at proper temperatures
4. is it cooked with respect for the animals life

[AKDavy]

13. I used to be a USDA slaughter inspector

Pigs die horrible deaths.

I once had one whose foot had slipped out of the chain while its throat was being cut run directly to me. It was obviously an animal that had learned to associate humans with good things, and it was looking for a way out of the horror.

The sad truth is that corporate pig farming and meat packing industry does not raise, transport, slaughter or process meat with any proper level of respect, and I frequently had to stop operations because of sanitary conditions (e.g. feces on cutting tools).

[Recursion]

14. Industrial meat packing is a horror show

Ethical/sustainable slaughtering and butchering doesn't have to be. And is usually cheaper in the long run, you just have to stay local.

[AKDavy]

19. My wife and I don't eat pig...

because I do believe the intelligence of the animal is a valid concern, and I question the ethics of people who don't include anguish and terror in the humane equation. It's why I reject the "sustainable" argument for whaling.

The meat we do eat is humane sources, and we limit our meat intake for health, environmental and ethical reasons.

Where to draw the line is a personal choice, but the freedom to make the choice doesn't necessarily mean all choices are equally valid.

[GillesDeleuze]

24. i eat pigs processed at Black Earth meats

and most quality shops carry 'em.

[meegbear]

23. E. I wonder what this bacon would taste like dipped in chocolate?

[Recursion]

26. One of my favorite Failblog "wins"

http://wins.failblog.org/2011/02/22/epic-win-photos-delicious-bacon-now-in-a-glass/

[meegbear]

27. BWAH-HAHAHAHA!!

:rofl:

[drm604]

5. Economically at least, it makes more sense to eat pigs than it does to eat dogs.

Dogs are carnivores. If you raise carnivores for food, you have to also raise the animals that you feed to the carnivores. It makes more sense economically and ecologically to just eat the animals that you would have fed to the dogs. You use less resources that way.

Emotionally, people generally feel more of an attachment to dogs. We've evolved together to form a symbiosis which includes an emotional attachment.

[GillesDeleuze]

8. From a waste management and resource efficiency perspective

pigs are pretty bad deal.

NOW RABBITS, THATS FREE MEAT!

[drm604]

9. Granted; but still better than dogs.

I wonder why no one has tried to market rabbits on a large scale?

[Recursion]

16. Yeah, I don't get why rabbit isn't a "staple meat" either

We used to raise them and it's not all that much work compared to the ruminants, or even chickens. And rabbit meat is delicious.

[drm604]

17. Maybe they're hard to farm on a mass scale.

It strikes me that rabbits like to dig and move around.

[Recursion]

20. I guess; we only had a few dozen at a time

Still; herd them in the summer, hutch them in the winter. I'm sure they could come up with some industrial horror-show version of a hutch that would hold millions of rabbits.

[GillesDeleuze]

25. thats just it..

they aren't much work. if people knew how easy (and fun) it is to garden and raise rabbits, it might cut into agribusiness hegemony

[GillesDeleuze]

6. I'd eat human if there was consent

and no risk of prions.

Pork is delicious. When raised properly, one can get enormous flavor from every part of the animal, including offal.


I dont think people can live in the north and pretend veganism is somehow ethical.

[24601]

29. Pork tastes better n/t

[drm604]

2. K&R

If I'm understanding this correctly, it sounds like these new rules are a good thing. We certainly don't want to screw farmers.

[jwirr]

10. Interesting. We visited NW IA last year and there are so many farmers

with huge metal barns (new) that we had to ask what was going on. The packs build the barns for the farmers and pay them to raise hogs all confined to this building. The smell alone is horrible. These hogs never see the light of day. One thing that is important to know though is that many of these farmers may not have made it if this had not happened. They are often the ones who are just on the edge of loosing their farms. It is a hard situation to deal with.

Another thing that was different were all the wind machines in these farmers fields. When I asked if electricity was cheaper they just shrugged. The machines are actually producing electricity to send to other states. No such thing as a local supply.

Monsanto and the corporations pretty much have their mitts all over farmers today.

[BeFree]

18. Water pollution, too

The washouts of those barns does see the light of day as it rests in a pond. Rests until a rainstorm comes along and makes the ponds overflow.... and then it's on a race to the ocean.

[jwirr]

21. I wasn't there long enough to see that but I did suspect. Even if the

waste just seeped down to the water level it would be polluting the water. However, most people in NE IA do not drink the water anymore because it was long ago polluted with chemical runoff. They are wasting the one thing that they used to have an abundance of.

[Steerpike]

11. Personally

I prefer mutton...they are stupid animals that deserve to be eaten! They are docile and easily slaughtered...unlike pigs (who tend to be very noisy!)...NOTHING LIKE SOME ROAST MUTTON!

[Recursion]

15. Mutton is wonderful. The only real shepherd's pie uses mutton

Beef just isn't close to the same.

[hedgehog]

12. Farmers raising their own stock will feed them what's handy.

I know of local farmers who feed their pigs apples and stale donuts! That's as a supplement, so the animals aren't starving. The result is meat with actual flavor. Farmers working as sharecroppers feed exactly what the packer tells them to feed. The feed plan is based on maximum growth with minimum input. The result is something that resembles chicken, pork or beef, but I challenge you to identify it with your eyes closed.

[jwirr]

22. We raised two hogs last year and they ate just about as good as

we do. All our garden greens, apples, etc.

[GillesDeleuze]

28. Ive eaten pig that get a pint of fine ale every day

they drink better than i do.

the flavor was outstanding! expensive little guys, but delicious.