# Smithfield and Paula and China???



## SpikeC (Jul 10, 2013)

First Smithfield pitches Paula over the side, then they sell the company to China. Coincidence?


----------



## ecchef (Jul 10, 2013)

In an ideal world, Paula would have been sold to the Chinese.


----------



## Crothcipt (Jul 10, 2013)

:angryexplode::rofl:


----------



## lrbaldwin (Jul 11, 2013)

We DO NOT like Smithfield. Hubby Frank and I have grown up in Virginia (for 65+ years). Smithfield has ruined pigs.....they've been bred to be lean, tough, and dry. There was a time when hogs used for Smithfield hams were fed (at least finished) on peanuts. The meat was similar in fat to prime beef (the prime beef of that time, not the junk we have today). They've bought up just about everything pork. The only thing pork we buy here now is butts for smoking, and they're nowhere near as good as they used to be. Just about all the places that aren't owned by Smithfield Foods and cure their own country hams buy the fresh meat from Smithfield Foods. In case anybody's interested in a really good country ham, R.M. Felts in Ivor, VA, produces the best we've had in many years. They don't use Smithfield Foods meat. We buy at least 3 a year directly from them. They're on the north side of Rt 460, and you just walk into the processing plant, breathe in all that wonderful pig/smoke, see the 8' high mountain of hams layered in salt, and tell them what size you want. Fortunately we pass by there on the way to and from Duck. They're not open on Sunday, maybe open till noon on Sat, and shut down religiously from 12 to 1 for lunch.

Linda
Powhatan, VA
Duck, NC


----------



## Mucho Bocho (Jul 11, 2013)

Linda, Agreed about Smithfiled prime pork cuts but the Jowls are decent for $1.39LBS


----------



## bikehunter (Jul 11, 2013)

lrbaldwin said:


> Smithfield has ruined pigs.....they've been bred to be lean, tough, and dry.
> Linda
> Powhatan, VA
> Duck, NC



It's not just Smithfield. They've mostly all been ruined so they can call it "the other white meat". When it comes to meat and poultry, Americans have gotten just what they demanded...and deserve. Tasteless and cheap....and less fattening. ;-)


----------



## echerub (Jul 11, 2013)

The meat is leaner, but from what I understand, the lower fat content also means your brain doesn't get the "I'm full" signal as quickly. You could therefore end up eating more - of the meat itself or just overall at the table - as a result.


----------



## rahimlee54 (Jul 11, 2013)

I have a good butcher here that doesn't deal with Smithfield but you have to take him half a paycheck to get anything big. The Berkshire he gets is awesome though.


----------



## apicius9 (Jul 11, 2013)

Back in Germany at my local Farmers' market were three, sometimes four, butcher trucks selling meats. One of them always had a long line, and his ham was the best I ever had - It tasted like pork, like I remembered it from my childhood. I asked him what he did that his ham tasted so good. "Absolutely nothing, that's the whole point. " he said. But he ce from a small village and new the pigs by name, knew what they were fed by his neighbors etc. That ham is one of the things I miss. Over here, many of them are glued together or for some inexplicable reason are yet another product that has sugar added to it... Whenever I go home, I drive 40 miles from my parents place to buy that ham. 

Stefan


----------



## ChuckTheButcher (Jul 14, 2013)

Smithfield, Hormel, IBG, Cargill. It's all crap. I am a Virginian and a butcher that has been in the sustainable meat industry my whole adult life and I hate what they have done to my beloved pig in the past 40 years. Also talking fattier pigs, when a pig is fed a proper foraged diet it's fat is an HDL not an LDL. Pigs are the only meat where this is the case but only if it's fed right. Not to mention factory pigs, especially yorkshires, have been bred so lean that they can not survive outside. They will actually die from exposure if they are left outside. No one in the world is fat because they ate a more marbled piece of meat. A century ago hams from Smithfield used to be considered some of the best hams in the world do to the fact they where allowed to forage in the peanut fields. Think iberico with acorns. Now it's about on par with spam. Ps pay an extra 50 cents for jowls that aren't factory raised. There are so many glands in jowls. It is the last piece of meat you want from a factory farm.


----------



## Mucho Bocho (Jul 23, 2013)

Chuck, What can you sell me Jowl's for? I'll come up and buy a case. While were at it, can I get some Caul from you too? That has been very difficult to find.


----------



## Duckfat (Jul 26, 2013)

ChuckTheButcher said:


> Also talking fattier pigs, when a pig is fed a proper foraged diet it's fat is an HDL not an LDL. Pigs are the only meat where this is the case but only if it's fed right.



Pork that is raised and fed properly will contain more unsaturated fat and the result from consuming that protein is that your body will produce more HDL than LDL by a ratio of about 1.5:1 That does not mean that all of the cholesterol you produce from consuming fattier pigs, free range pigs or any non-CAFO product will be all HDL. Although I dig the idea! 
If that were true every drug company would be trying to find a way of using pork fat for cholesterol meds.
I'm not sure I buy into the notion that this is only true with pigs. Free range Venison is very lean on saturated fat. If you start penning up Moose, Deer, Elk, Caribou etc and plump them up by force feeding or altered diets I strongly suspect that they (or any animal) would produce a much higher level of saturated fat. Isn't this the idea with with corn fed beef? 
There's a lot of reasons not to like CAFO pork but we all need to remember that those commercial farms produce pork bi-products necessary for vaccinations, meds etc. As well as provide lower cost protein. Not every one can afford free range Heritage breeds. Every one likes to bag on CAFO farming, Monsanto etc (myself included) but the simple truth is that with out them food costs would be obscene for all but the wealthy.

Dave


----------

