Replies to post #23594 on Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[horsegirl48]

the poooor pigs, :0(

[mlsoft]

"The U.S. government will buy $30 million worth of pork for use in the federal school lunch program in hopes of boosting beleaguered hog markets..."
===============================================================
AKvetch....

Sheesh -

Now they want to use taxpayer money to drive up the price of pork in what amounts to market intervention. You would think that the recently passed Farm Bill had enough pork in it to last even Washington a lifetime, but apparently that was not enough for farmer's in an election year. The reason that pork is depressed is that feed prices have skyrocketed, forcing hog farmers to take their animals to market, and thus producing a temporary glut and driving prices down. The problem is that once the influx of all those hogs into the market winds down, there will be a shortage and the price of pork will be going higher, probably substantially so.

During election years, the public tit grows to massive proportions.

mlsoft

[Train Guy]

What I don't get is if they are buying more pork, doesn't that mean they are buying less of something else? The number kids they are feeding didn't go up did it? And surely they are not going to try and stuff more food down the fat little kids mouths. <g>

30-40 million pounds isn't even 1% of third quarter production, how would that have much affect. And as far as the glut now, causing a shortage in the near future, unless it is getting used immediately (wouldn't be a glut if it was being used) it just goes into cold storage. Could take six months or more to work through it.