Hard times and opportunities

[Butterbean]

With the closure of Smithfield and other large processing facilities we will probably see meat prices go up however the system works like a slinky toy and there are a lot of pigs in the system that do not have a place to go. We have a local producer here who is in this very situation and is trying to find alternative markets for his hogs. He has a lot of them and is trying to market them locally using a small processing facility. His idea has been to sell packaged meat straight to the consumer which - in my view - will never consume the quantity that he produces. It may help but he has thousands so selling pork by the pack is going to be a huge undertaking.

My thought is I may be able to pick up some whole carcasses which will be inspected for a reasonable price and from here I can ....... well you know ....... make all sorts of things. Another thought I had was just buy bellies. Most consumers don't know what to do with bellies so I'm wondering if this won't be a hard to sell item for them which might be reflected in the price. One cannot have to much bacon can he?

Never seen anything like this happen before. Just trying to get an idea how this might play out. Any thoughts or suggestions?