The Chaebol Returns To The Presidency 1967 [EN]: Chapter 59

59. Majang-dong Disguise (2)

“What do you mean? You switched the pigs. The small one with another.”

“Switched!”

“I should have branded the pig’s body, but I just butchered it, so there’s no mark on the carcass, and they switched it. They looked down on me because I’m a country bumpkin.”

“Those bastards!”

“The auctioneer was in on it too.”

“The auctioneer too? Are you saying they rigged the auction?”

“They bid low only for my pig.”

“Unbelievable, these robbers!”

“The money I got was less than half. How can I not be upset? Gulp, gulp!”

“You deserve a drink.”

The woman said.

“In that slaughterhouse, they even disguise pigs as cows.”

“What? I know imported meat gets passed off as Korean beef, but how can a pig become a cow?”

Alchemy couldn’t even do that. Turning a pig into a cow? No matter how smart Koreans are, that’s impossible.

If the alchemy of changing species were real, it would be a Nobel Prize, no, a technology that would open a new chapter in human history.

“What kind of technique do they use?”

“They make ‘ttadon’.”

“‘Tdadon’? What’s that?”

It was a word I’d never heard before.

“A pig that has given birth is a ‘ttadon’.”

“Ah, a seed pig!”

In livestock farming, among pigs, there is a sow that produces offspring like a queen bee.

The piglets are raised and sold when they reach a certain weight, and only the seed pig is left to produce more piglets.

The seed pig gives birth several times and weighs over 200kg [440 pounds].

So the meat is very tough and lacks the unique fat of pork, so it can’t be eaten raw and is sold for processed meat products like ham or sausage.

“If you peel the skin off a ‘ttadon’, the meat is red like beef. They hang it in the slaughterhouse refrigerator and soak it in water, freezing and thawing it while beating it to give it the color of beef.”

“…….”

“They sell that moderately tough, fat-free meat as beef.”

“Wow, that’s something. Still, wouldn’t you be able to tell the difference between pork and beef if you ate it?”

“It looks the same to the eye. If anyone says anything, they just say it’s imported meat.”

“Ah, so they sell it as imported frozen meat.”

“Of course.”

“Really, there’s nothing to trust but Korean beef.”

“Even Korean beef needs good luck.”

“Yes? Is Korean beef also fake?”

“They feed them salt and make them drink a lot of water, so the meat doubles in size, they say.”

“Ah, water-injected beef! That’s what beef that drips water is.”

“Consumers don’t know that, and if they complain that it’s imported meat, the butcher proudly shows them the head of a Korean cow and argues.”

“Pigs become cows, mother pigs are switched for piglets, whether it’s imported meat or Korean beef, or water-injected beef, I can’t trust anything. Where else in the world is there such a devil’s den?”

‘Devil’s den’ comes from the novel ‘Water Margin’ [a classical Chinese novel]. It means a base of evil, a den of iniquity, where bad things or conspiracies are constantly taking place.

The old man said.

“I don’t know why the country doesn’t fix things like this. Economic development and environmental protection are good, but the common people’s pockets are being emptied like this.”

The President’s face turned bright red.

“Y-you’re right. I’m sorry, Elder.”

“…….”

*

Cabinet meeting.

The President attended in person and held a meeting with the ministers and officials in charge of related ministries.

The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries prepared a graph and reported.

“As income increases, changes in dietary habits are expected. Consumption of livestock products will increase sharply, and consumption will skyrocket more than threefold within 10 years.”

Once rice self-sufficiency was resolved, it was time for meat consumption to increase.

The President asked.

“I hear that consumption of livestock products will increase sharply in the future, but what about livestock product distribution policies?”

The minister was flustered by the President’s sudden question.

He stammered, rummaged through the data, and answered.

“Prices are generally maintained stably, except for Chuseok [Korean Thanksgiving] and Seol [Lunar New Year], which are peak seasons for meat, and Sambok [hottest days of summer] for chicken.”

“Where did the price data you’re looking at now come from?”

“Yes, it’s auction data from the Majang-dong slaughterhouse, Your Excellency.”

It was the daily average auction price data provided by the Majang-dong auction house.

The President said.

“The average price doesn’t show the rigged auction prices that the auctioneers collude on, does it?”

“Ah, yes, there are upward and downward deviations because it’s an average.”

The minister did not understand the President’s intention and was giving an academic answer.

“Minister, I’m talking about distribution irregularities where auctioneers collude with distributors to bid at ridiculously low prices, or bid high for their related businesses.”

“Ah, yes!”

“Does the minister only look at documents and statistics at his desk without checking the actual field situation?”

“…….”

“Find out what’s going on in the field!”

“I’m sorry. To be honest, I’m a little reluctant to go to the slaughterhouse.”

“What do you mean? Is it because it’s an undesirable facility?”

“It’s partly because it’s an undesirable facility, but, well, they really don’t like it at the slaughterhouse.”

“What kind of answer is that? You’re reluctant to go to a slaughterhouse that is directly related to public health because the slaughterhouse doesn’t like it? What kind of work are public officials going to do? Isn’t that why a blind spot in public authority arises?”

“In the past, many hygiene officials were harmed when they went to slaughterhouses for inspections. The butchers are so reckless that administrative guidance doesn’t work there.”

“In short, you’re saying that gangsters threatened them?”

“W-well, that’s about it.”

“Hmm, so there’s extraterritoriality in the Republic of Korea. The notoriety of being a devil’s den didn’t just come about.”

This was proof that improving the distribution of agricultural and livestock products could not be properly established simply by enacting laws.

First, the distribution laws had to be revised and the practices had to be corrected.

The President asked the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

“Who has the right to determine the consumer prices of beef and pork?”

“W-well. It depends on the shipping price….”

The President asked another minister.

“Minister of the Economic Planning Board!”

“Well, it’s determined by supply and demand. If the amount shipped is greater than the amount purchased, the price falls, and if the amount consumed is high, the price rises.”

“That’s academic principle, I’m talking about the real economy.”

“…….”

The ministers were at a loss.

The President rebuked.

“The agricultural and livestock intermediate distributors are holding it tight. The prices are whatever the collectors, auctioneers, and wholesalers call for!”

“…….”

“Why is this happening?”

“…….”

“Agricultural and livestock products become garbage if you miss the timing of selling them after growing them all, so producers are anxious and cling to selling them on time, becoming the ‘eul’ [the weaker party]. The price of cattle, pigs, fruits, and vegetables that have passed their peak is dirt cheap.”

“That’s right!”

“If they are left alone, only the feed costs will increase, and if frost falls, they will become garbage, so the collectors use this weakness to lower the price and collect them, right?”

The ministers were sweating profusely.

The President went straight ahead without brakes.

“If there is overproduction, farmers suffer huge losses, but intermediate distributors buy them at low prices and add all their margins, so consumers have to buy them at high prices. Intermediate merchants hoard and release them during peak seasons, raking in money, but the producing farmers can’t even cover their labor costs.”

The Prime Minister also just blinked.

“I’m sorry.”

The President said.

“There is another reason why intermediate merchants have the right to determine prices.”

“What….”

“It’s because there is only one slaughterhouse and auction house in Majang-dong in Seoul, the largest market. Because there is no competition, the evils of monopoly occur.”

“Ah, that’s really true.”

The President presented an alternative.

“Unlike industrial products, agricultural, forestry, and livestock products have the specificity of having a freshness deadline, so a public institution dedicated to distribution is needed. Let’s create the Agricultural, Forestry, and Livestock Products Distribution Corporation.”

The Agricultural Products Corporation was a policy that was 20 years ahead of its time.

“Let’s eliminate the mountain collection stage by having farmers ship directly to the Agricultural and Livestock Products Corporation instead of mountain collectors.”

The ministers diligently wrote down the President’s words.

“Meat consumption is increasing, the number of livestock raised is increasing, and the Majang-dong slaughterhouse is already saturated. Let’s build two more slaughterhouses in Seoul, in Garak-dong and Doksan-dong, and open them as livestock wholesale markets with auction functions as the core, not slaughter functions.”

“Is the livestock wholesale market different from the existing private wholesalers?”

“Of course. The livestock wholesale market is a place where auction competition takes place. We will post the auction price and encourage competition. If the auction price in Garak-dong is better than in Majang-dong, farmers can ship to the wholesale market that is advantageous to them. Instead of a lump-sum average price, let’s record all auction details for each carcass to make it transparent and eradicate collusion and corruption.”

Squeak, squeak, squeak!

Only the sound of officials writing was heard.

“Deliver to retail stores immediately after the auction is won, and have the distribution corporation deliver directly for a certain fee to eliminate the private wholesale stage.”

It was a revolutionary alternative to eliminate production area collection and meat wholesale stages, and to transparently and highly bid auctions to benefit shipping farmers through competition.

The ministers in charge were impressed by the President’s solution and took notes diligently.

The President spoke about the measures he had prepared.

“Let’s establish slaughterhouse permits, livestock product distribution, and hygiene standards. It’s all haphazard now. Slaughtering on the floor, dragging it around, and storing it without refrigeration is causing widespread food poisoning.”

The attendees wrote diligently.

“Let’s also create standards for purifying slaughterhouse wastewater. Existing slaughterhouses will be given a grace period for renovation to meet the standards, and slaughterhouses that do not meet the standards will be boldly closed. So let’s encourage large-scale livestock wholesale markets in each province.”

In the provinces, slaughterhouses were scattered on a small scale, and illegal slaughter without paying slaughter taxes and disguising Korean beef were rampant.

“Livestock excrement wastewater from livestock farms is the next largest source of pollution after domestic wastewater. Let’s devise a way to turn cattle and pig manure into compost resources and distribute it to farms.”

“Yes, Your Excellency!”

“Let’s introduce a system of indicating the origin and breed in retail butcher shops and restaurants. Consumers need to know and make choices, and there must be a basis for punishing them if they sell fraudulently.”

“Yes, Your Excellency!”

The President, who had unleashed a whirlwind of distribution improvement measures, changed the subject and asked.

“Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, let’s be honest for once.”

“…….”

“Are our farmers’ livestock products internationally price competitive?”

“Well, honestly, no. In particular, Korean beef is raised by grazing thousands of heads in pastures in Australia and the United States, but we raise two or three heads per farm as an extra, and if large-scale farms import and feed feed, the production cost increases two or three times.”

“Yes, that’s right. It’s not internationally competitive. But do you know why we still have to try?”

“Of course. It’s because of the weaponization of food.”

“That’s right. If there is no meat to procure domestically, foreign imported meat companies can raise prices sharply and we won’t be able to do anything about it. That’s why we need to maintain a certain proportion. The reason why frozen imported meat is cheap now is also because live cattle, Korean beef, and dairy cows support it.”

“That’s right, Your Excellency!”