I don’t know about you guys, but my favourite meat is beef.
Considering that beef is pretty expensive in S’pore, and beef also isn’t exactly environmentally friendly, that means I have to make certain sacrifices and swap it out for chicken.
Make sense, yeah? It’s a simple consumer decision.
And lest you don’t know, swine flu was a pretty serious thing in China for a long time. Because China produces more than half the world’s pork, the swine flu which was estimated to kill 1/3 of China’s pig population will end up eliminating 1/6 of the world’s pig population.
You heard that right. 1/6 of the world.
I don’t know about you guys, but anything that is threatening 1/6 of the world anything is an Avengers level threat.
Pork Price More Than Doubled
When people say that pigs couldn’t fly, they were clearly only kidding because their prices sure did.
Pork prices in China soared to more than twice the original price. In a supermarket in one of China’s town centres, the price of lean pork is now 72 yuan (S$13.85) per kg, while pork rib costs 74 yuan (S$14.23) a kg.
This price is now similar to major cities like Shanghai and Beijing, where prices are already high.
In fact, China’s Consumer Price Index raised 3% because of the flu.
And with prices so high, the Chinese started having second thoughts on eating pork…
Returned To Eating Dog And Rabbit Meat
In case you forgot, parts of China, in particular in rural areas, used to eat dog meat.
Which is totally easy to forget when in S’pore, dogs = cute shit you occasionally cuddle with.
But I guess this isn’t the correct article to be using my arsenal of rabbit and doggo gifs for an example of what I mean…
Just in case you think you’re going to start finding dog and rabbit meat everywhere in China, that’s not exactly the case. It’s mostly only in rural parts of the country.
There are a few reasons: lower-income groups are even less likely to purchase pork now since it became more expensive, and it is hard to find it in the first place since the flu killed pigs in nearby farms.
Pork Is Serious Business
Just in case you think I’m joking about the Avengers level threat thing, pork prices actually caused discontent to grow among the public especially among low-income groups.
You see, the average Chinese citizen’s faith in the Chinese gahmen is based on economic growth. Which isn’t hard to see why when looking back in the past 20 years of China.
Thus, when people were unable to get pork, this made them less convinced that the gahmen is able to achieve the promised bright economic future.
At the moment, the swine flu doesn’t seem to be stopping soon.
And I’m not saying that people will suddenly start rioting because they can’t eat pork anymore, but there are controversies that started because of the rise in prices of food.
Like the Green New Deal in America’s controversy on reducing cows.
Like the Flour War in France in 1775.
Or the Pig War that started with the shooting of a single pig.
Huh… I guess I’ll need to start stocking up on war survival kits just in case.
