global hog markets and Russia

[Ken Hanly <khanly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Free markets at work making Russia more efficient.
  CHeers, Ken Hanly
===== the script of the CNN report on a pig farm that Professor
Hough
mentioned:

     The pigs are hungry.
     In fact, they are starving.
     The only thing workers at the Yaroslavl pig farm have to
feed them is
grass.
     (Farmer) "It's really painful. The pigs are going to starve
again. Of
course, that's not very good for the soul."
     Before the grass arrived this Spring the pigs were fed peat
and
sawdust.
     They grew so weak they had to lean against each other to
remain
standing.
     Those that fell had to be removed, to avoid being devoured.
     They died at a rate of 300 a day.
     Just a short drive from the carnage Russians have a choice -
pigs'
legs
from Denmark, pork chops from Australia, ribs from France.
     In a town once surrounded by Russian pig farms, there is no
Russian
pork for sale.
     (Farmer) "They buy imported pork because it's cheaper. Our
pork works
out to be more expensive because the feed is so expensive. So the
farm's
broke."
     Broke and deserted, part of a national trend. There were 40
million
pigs in Russia in 1990, according to the Agriculture Ministry.
Today there
are just 18 million.
     These piglets will never make it to maturity. The local
government has
ordered the Yaroslavl farm to kill all but 2000, the number they
can feed.
     That has led to protests from the 2,500 workers at the farm,
who now
face unemployment and a likely struggle to feed themselves.

Steve Harrigan
CNN Moscow

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