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How China is buying up America's food supply
American Thinker ^ | 05/05/2020 | Ziva Dahl

Posted on 05/05/2020 6:55:38 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

A Sioux Falls meatpacking plant was forced to close when it became the epicenter of COVID-19 in South Dakota. Three weeks after executives from its Chinese owner, WH Group, visited the plant, a month after President Trump’s ban on travel from China, nearly 600 of Smithfield Foods’ 3700 employees tested positive for the virus, as have 135 additional people in close contact with employees.

Smithfield Foods was started in 1936 by a family in Virginia. Today, the Chinese own Armour and the famous Smithfield hams, together with the most quintessential American brand of all -- Nathan’s Famous hot dogs, with its iconic annual eating contest.

In 2013, Smithfield Foods was bought by the Shanghui Group, later rebranded as the WH Group, for $4.7 billion. It remains the largest total acquisition of a U.S. company by the Chinese. With that purchase, the Chinese owned one in four pigs raised in the U.S. and, by adding 146,000 acres, continued to be the world’s largest buyer of American farmland.

The purchase was underwritten with a $4 billion Bank of China loan facilitated by the Chinese Communist Party. The deal was an integral part of the CCP’s 2011 five-year plan to improve the Chinese economy with purchases of overseas farmland and food processing companies. Food is poised to become the oil of the 21st century, with demand increasing for a scarce resource. The CCP identified meat processing as a strategically important industry and, with the Smithfield acquisition, China gained access to the world’s most advanced animal processing technology. Former Smithfield CEO Larry Pope said, “In many respects, this is carrying out the (Chinese) government’s five-year plan, which is to improve the quality and the security of their food supply.”

The Chinese consume half of the world’s pork production

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: armour; chicoms; china; farmland; food; foodsecurity; foodsupply; hogs; hotdogs; meat; nathans; pork; smithfield; smithsfield; trade
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1 posted on 05/05/2020 6:55:38 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

All of their holdings need to be seized, and they further need to be barred from owning anything at all in this country.

Our manufacturing base needs to be completely restored. We need to be able to make whatever we want, whenever we want it. And any politician that attempts to say or do otherwise needs to be run out on a rail to put it very darned mildly.


2 posted on 05/05/2020 6:58:36 AM PDT by chris37 (China's Gift wasn't born in a bowl of bat soup.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Who profited from the sale?

Foreign “Enemy”?
Tax the jumpin jehosaphat out of the company.

Somebody sold out America, once again.

Time is long past for tar, rope & feathers.


3 posted on 05/05/2020 7:00:03 AM PDT by Macoozie (Handcuffs and Orange Jumpsuits)
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To: SeekAndFind

I don’t particularly mind the Chicoms wanting to improve their food process. I am angry that we allow them to buy into our food production.

We had lots of free trade before Red China’s entry into the WTO, with Taiwan free Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, Europe, Latin America. Some stuff cost more, and that’s okay. Now its time for the U.S. itself for vitals and non-hegemonic countries (India, Malaysia, Mexico,Brazil) to pick up the slack on the non-essentials. Europe and Japan can continue to supply luxury, niche and specialty items.


4 posted on 05/05/2020 7:00:45 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics)
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To: SeekAndFind
I think China is at war with us, and I think the fact that they own a lot of stuff over here is an advantage for us.

When England went through its Reformation, the King was in opposition to the Pope. From Wikipedia:
Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries, in England, Wales and Ireland, appropriated their income, disposed of their assets, and provided for their former personnel and functions

China has cost us trillions. I think we should just take their stuff.

5 posted on 05/05/2020 7:01:04 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (If White Privilege is real, why did Elizabeth Warren lie about being an Indian?)
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To: SeekAndFind

I been mentioning this especially since last decade or two, it seemed too many foreignors buying not only homes but business and obama just let them flood in even faster and ANY person with working brain cells would know in time, all the different cultural (hygiene) ways would lead to problems in work places and communities.


6 posted on 05/05/2020 7:02:06 AM PDT by b4me (God Bless the USA)
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To: chris37
Our manufacturing base needs to be completely restored

Yep, we're in really bad shape. One month of ramping up domestic mask manufacturing and we're still drastically short - not good. One would think we could make millions of N-95 masks per month.

7 posted on 05/05/2020 7:02:51 AM PDT by 1Old Pro (#openupstateny)
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To: SeekAndFind

And with a small vial of pig flu smuggled in by a ChiCom Exec, they can destroy American pork production in one fell swoop.


8 posted on 05/05/2020 7:04:05 AM PDT by Uncle Miltie (BOYCOTT CHINA! - spread the word .... (China is the Sick Man of Asia with a very small penis))
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To: Macoozie

Who profited from the same? I’d say it was the owners of the company that sold it.


9 posted on 05/05/2020 7:04:44 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("And somewhere in the darkness ... the gambler, he broke even.")
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To: chris37
All of their holdings need to be seized, and they further need to be barred from owning anything at all in this country....

They did it right in plain sight, so we've complied with making this nightmare of a bed to lie in, and it will be an epic task to get it turned around, if even possible.

10 posted on 05/05/2020 7:04:54 AM PDT by gloryblaze
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To: SeekAndFind

How could they come here after the closure of our border with China


11 posted on 05/05/2020 7:05:36 AM PDT by stockpirate (Anyone who believes Epstein killed himself is a fool, and the DNC wacked Seth Rich)
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To: ClearCase_guy

I agree with all you said!


12 posted on 05/05/2020 7:08:10 AM PDT by goodnesswins (Anyone tired of the Chinese Fire Drill (tm) yet???)
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To: 1Old Pro

This incident has exposed a number of glaring weaknesses in our systems, but primarily in manufacturing, media and government, including congress, governors and mayors.

So many things need repair or rebuilding ASAP, and it’s all going to have to be done while the Cooties are going do whatever it is that it is going to do, hopefully mutate out and bugger off. Now is the time to make a move, come what may.


13 posted on 05/05/2020 7:09:30 AM PDT by chris37 (China's Gift wasn't born in a bowl of bat soup.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Didn’t someone on a federal level have to approve or review such a purchase by a foreign company? Perhaps the Obama/Hillary State Department should have raised some alarm about the purchase.


14 posted on 05/05/2020 7:09:55 AM PDT by The Great RJ ("Socialists are happy until they run out of other people's money." Margaret Thatcher)
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To: gloryblaze

I agree, and at the same time we have to deal with our own Left, who is trying to stab us all in the back and front just as fast as they can.

Evil on the move everywhere, it’s mind boggling.


15 posted on 05/05/2020 7:10:49 AM PDT by chris37 (China's Gift wasn't born in a bowl of bat soup.)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
In 2013, Smithfield Foods was bought by the Shanghui Group, later rebranded as the WH Group, for $4.7 billion. It remains the largest total acquisition of a U.S. company by the Chinese. With that purchase, the Chinese owned one in four pigs raised in the U.S. and, by adding 146,000 acres, continued to be the world’s largest buyer of American farmland.
That'll come in handy when it comes time to seize all Chinese assets in the US.

16 posted on 05/05/2020 7:13:34 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: SeekAndFind

How many deaths in this group of 600? Do others have antibodies?


17 posted on 05/05/2020 7:14:01 AM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: stockpirate

How could they come here after the closure of our border with Chin
- = =

Badly written sentence. Too many clauses, ambiguous time references.

Maybe the sickness showed up after the closure, or not, as you ask about.


18 posted on 05/05/2020 7:14:34 AM PDT by Scrambler Bob (This is not /s. It is just as viable as any MSM 'information', maybe more so!)
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To: SeekAndFind

No rational country allows foreign ownership of its land and food.


19 posted on 05/05/2020 7:15:40 AM PDT by henkster ("We can always fool the foreigner" - Chinese Proverb)
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To: SeekAndFind

Its outrageous that we allow them to buy these companies.


20 posted on 05/05/2020 7:17:25 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight neiyour way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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