Just in case the price of bacon wasn't already high enough for you, California's regulations and taxes have just caused Smithfield, the largest pork producer in the United States, to shut down its California plant.
From Western Journal:
Food processing corporation Smithfield Foods will shut down its Vernon, California, plant and scale back operations in California, Utah and Arizona, the company announced Friday.
Smithfield "will cease all harvest and processing operations in Vernon, California in early 2023 and, at the same time, align its hog production system by reducing its sow herd in its Western region," the company said in a Friday news release.
"Smithfield is taking these steps due to the escalating cost of doing business in California," the company said.
California has made it so difficult to do business in the state and the entire pork industry in the United States is going to suffer for it.
We told you nearly a year ago to look out for this coming aporkalypse.
California's regulations have created an environment designed to destroy this very important California industry.
As a matter of fact, despite California having vast resources, the state has already made it super expensive to produce pork in the state.
Like other food businesses nationwide, the company was hit by a combination of supply chain and labor shortages, the ongoing record-high inflation, and the war in Ukraine — a major producer of wheat—which sent grain prices soaring worldwide.
Because grain is a crucial ingredient in livestock feed, the impending grain shortage also spiked livestock feed prices, raising the California plant's production costs.
Adding salt to economic injury were utility costs in California, which, according to the company's spokesman, were 3.5 times higher per head than those in the 45 other plants in the country run by Smithfield.
California ALREADY costs 3.5x more per head to produce pork than ALL the other plants in the United States.
Producers are paying $3.50 to produce $1.00 worth of pork by keeping the plant in California. But it's such a big pork producer it's hard to leave.
But the regulations and taxes have finally pushed Smithfield out.
California is about to become a baconless wasteland. If you're in the Golden State you should start stocking up now.
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