Andy Vance

Yesterday’s news that China’s Shuanghui International would buy Virginia-based Smithfield foods set my social media feeds aflutter. When a foreign company buys a massive U.S. company, it’s big news. When that company is in the food sector, it’s really, really big news. Hog farmer and social media celebrity Chris Chinn posed very real, relevant questions, [...]

In breaking news this morning, my Feedstuffs colleague Rod Smith reported that Virginia’s Smithfield Foods, one of the world’s largest food companies, has been acquired by China’s Shuanghui International Holdings for $4.7 billion dollars. According to the Wall Street Journal, the deal – should it pass U.S. regulatory scrutiny – could become the largest Chinese [...]

Domestic ethanol demand and a growing global population with an increasingly Westernized diet drove unprecedented farm commodity prices in 2010, a trend economists think is unlikely to shift this marketing year. With $6 corn and $13 soybeans, farmers across the Corn Belt question the sustainability of 2010’s record prices. “Anytime we have high prices, there [...]

To satisfy the country’s “voracious appetite” for soybeans, China announced commitments to buy up to 5.5 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans. Hailing the benefits to the economy, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack noted the purchases’ worth of up to $3 billion at today’s market value. “The U.S.-China trade relationship continues to flourish, thanks [...]