pork

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has vetoed a bill that would limit the liability of large livestock farms when they are sued for creating a public nuisance due to odors or manure runoff. His veto may not be the end of the story because hog farmers are encouraging the legislature to override the veto.

The European Commission has been in a two-year deadlock over whether to remove formaldehyde from livestock feed. The chemical, which is used to kill salmonella, has been linked to cancer.

Smithfield Farms, the world’s largest pork producer, is launching a bioscience arm to ramp up company sales of pig parts for medical procedures. The $14-billion subsidiary of China’s WH Group hopes to one day offer pig organs for human transplants.

U.S. hog farms held 71 million head of pigs at the start of this month, the largest herd ever for this time of the year, said a quarterly USDA report. Analysts said the large number of hogs "should help keep the lid on pork prices at the meat case through 2018," reported Reuters.

In the floods caused by Hurricane Matthew, manure lagoons on North Carolina hog farms "withstood the storm remarkably well," said the North Carolina Pork Council. Fourteen lagoons were flooded and only one lagoon was partially breached — on a farm that has not housed hogs "for more than five years, significantly minimizing the environmental impact."

Researchers at University College in Dublin, Ireland say that feeding seaweed, a popular ingredient in ancient Chinese medicine, to sows can improve the health of their offspring and reduce the use of antimicrobials, says the Aberdeen (Scotland) Press and Journal.

The world's largest pork producer and consumer, China, has soared into the lead as the world's largest pork importer, accounting for one-fourth of the world market. China will import 2.4 million tons of pork this year, a million tons more than Japan, the previous leader, says a semiannual USDA report.

Chinese officials in Shangdong Province have ratified the country’s first government-backed recommendations for how to slaughter chickens, says the New York Times. The guidelines, which were are not mandatory, are both an attempt to quell activists’ concerns and corner the export poultry market, which increasingly calls for more humane animal production.

Some 16 percent of U.S. red meat and poultry will be exported this year, a 900-million-pound increase from 2015, according to USDA estimates, which call for a modest increase in the new year. Sales were constrained last year by the strong dollar and trade barriers due to the bird flu epidemic.

It's no fluke - for the second year in a row, Mexico topped Japan as the largest customer for U.S. pork exports in terms of volume, buying 31 percent of all U.S. pork shipped to foreign buyers.

With U.S. repeal of country-of-origin labels (COOL) for beef and pork, a notable increase in shipments of Canadian hogs is forecast by USDA economists.

South Africa has agreed to remove barriers to U.S. poultry, beef and pork, said U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman. The United States threatened at the end of 2015 to revoke duty-free status for agricultural products from South Africa because it blocked U.S. meat. "The true test of our success will be based on the ability of South African consumers to buy American product in local stores," said Froman.

Beef and pork prices soared to record highs in the supermarket in 2014 but shoppers are seeing some relief as producers expand cattle and hog herds. Pork prices "continue to fall below 2014 figures as there are signs of industry expansion and a lower volume of exports due to the strength of the U.S. dollar," says the monthly Food Price Outlook.

The Bureau of Prisons, which eliminated pork from the menu at U.S. prisons, "put pork roast back on the prison bill of fare," says the Washington Post.