Grandkids Horrified by Antiquated Views

I read a couple recent articles about Jackie O’s grandkids being “horrified” by revelations that their grandmother got "all her opinions from her husband”, JFK, or that “women are too emotional for politics”. At that point in time (the 1960's) her statements wouldn’t have been nearly as controversial as they are today; it was simply a world very far removed from today’s reality. So it’s interesting to think about Jackie O’s grandkids’ reactions and how so much can change in just a couple generations.

So my question is, what will "horrify" our grandkids about our generation? Maybe our excessive use and reliance on fossil fuel? Maybe our entrapment of livestock and force-feeding of genetically modified substances in inhumane environments? Maybe our extreme reliance on antibiotics just to keep those same animals alive?

Or maybe it will be
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Smithfield Foods, A Personal Education

I’ve long heard in the non-conventional food media about Smithfield Foods. Surely, I’ve eaten a lot of their food products and, if you eat pork, chances are pretty high that you have too. So I wanted to learn more about Smithfield and do some of my own research. Here’s what I learned.

Who is Smithfield Foods?

Smithfield Foods began as a pork processing operation called The Smithfield Packing Company, founded in 1936 by Joseph W. Luter and his son, Joseph W. Luter, Jr. After a long series of acquisitions beginning in the early 1980’s Smithfield grew to become the largest pork processor and hog producer in the world. At the end of 2010 Smithfield sold its turkey operations and a 49% interest in Butterball. Earlier in 2010 Smithfield sold its live cattle operations. Currently, nearly 100% of Smithfield’s sales are derived from the sale of pig-related products. Packaged meat is sold domestically under the Smithfield, Farmland, Healthy Ones, John Morrell, Margherita and many other brand names.

Smithfield is responsible for ~25% of total pork produciton in the U.S. Tyson is responsible for 17% of U.S. pork volume and three other companies (Swift, Cargill & Hormel) account for an additional 27%, making the top five producers responsible for 70% of U.S. pork production.

Interesting production statistics in the recent fiscal year

  • Smithfield processed 27.3 million hogs with an average yield of 230 pounds per hog 
  • This totaled 6.3 billion pounds of marketable pork product
  • Smithfield raised
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Farm Products, What to Charge: Marketing, Price, Calculating Costs, Strategy and Much More

Cross-posted from beginningfarmers.org, an excellent resource for beginning (and existing) farmers.

The following is a fantastic guest article that really gives a comprehensive look at what to charge for your farm products. It provides useful information and great insights about marketing, price, calculating production and labor costs, and much more. For even more on this topic, it’s really worth checking out the excellent Farm Flows posts at www.littleseedfarm.com. Also, be sure to take a look at the links at the end of the article on marketing and price, as well as our Business Planning Page. Thanks to Scrapple for sharing his extensive knowledge on this topic!

As beginning farmers we’ve found it very helpful to interact with other beginners and share our cumulative knowledge as we all learn together. Starting a farming business is a daunting task and it helps to learn from others as we proceed down this path. One of the questions that comes up most frequently when chatting with other beginning farmers is how to price your farm products. This can be a very confusing proposition for someone with limited business experience and little financial background. Even for those with experience it can be a confounding problem. Having a background in business and economics and the experience of operating two profitable (although very small) businesses in the past, I thought it would be helpful to share an overview of some of our thoughts about pricing strategy.

What is your vision for the farm?


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