The Chinese Free Lunch

The Chinese are bent on proving the old adage "There is no free lunch", wrong.  With their purchase of the Smithfield Packing company, they have secured a huge supply of pork for their 1.4 billion people, and left much of the mess for the US taxpayer to clean up.  That's Marc Bittman's take on it in yesterday's NYT.  Bittman, who aggressively advocates for a meatless diet doesn't even weigh in on the ethical issues of the pork business.  He points out that China maintains a strategic pork reserve, much as we do with oil.  By buying Smithfield, they strengthen that reserve with some of the most advanced food production technology on the planet.  Instead of stealing that information, they were able to buy it.  Meanwhile, the nastier aspects of pig farming, the confined feeding operations the vast manure lagoons and all the environmental costs associated with it will be passed on to American taxpayers.  I don't see how this is a good deal except for the Chinese and the top executives at Smithfield.  It's just another example of global capitalism at its worst.  The profits are private and the costs are socialized.  Meanwhile, we give a potential enemy a strategic advantage.  Dr. Strangelove would appreciate the irony.