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Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by zackmorris on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @05:21PM (#6729074)
God bless Sriracha. I'm willing to take the dent in my average post score, that's how much I love the dang stuff. Long live Sriracha.

P.S. You haven't smelled a bad factory smell until you've driven past the sugarbeet processing plants in Nampa, Idaho, or the miles upon miles of factory farm dairies in eastern Idaho. Maybe Sriracha could use something like that for their Chewbacca defense.

Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by jlgreco on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @05:28PM (#6729108)
Dairy farms are nothing compared to pig farms. Absolutely foul. The smell is so penetrating it feels like you can smell it through your eyeballs. Cow manure you can get use to, but I could never get use to pig shit.

Papermills are also infamously smelly, though you can get use to those pretty quickly.

Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by bitops on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @07:31PM (#6729687)
I still remember being a kid visiting a pig farm in elementary school. Why they subjected us to this, I do not know.

Well, at one point, we were "allowed" to stand next to the manure pit, which was a cylindrical tank with no top. I poked my head over...

Did you know that some stenches can be so intense that they actually have wet vapor and can sting your eyes? I didn't know until that day. But after that day, I never forgot.

Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by duck on Friday November 15, 2013 @10:12PM (#6743401)
Why they subjected us to this, I do not know.

That is easy... to make sure you didn't become pig farmers.

Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by greedo on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @06:11PM (#6729324)
Slaughter yards are the worst. Drive north on I-29 from Omaha to Sioux City and you can smell the city from 30 miles out. Its nickname is Sewer City, and it actually made it hard for Gateway Computers to attract talent.
Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by jlgreco on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @07:26PM (#6729660)
Hmm, finally that cow logo makes sense.. ;)
Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by haberman on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @08:07PM (#6729853)
I think your information might be a little out of date. The Sioux City stockyards have been closed for over 10 years: http://amarillo.com/stories/032802/usn_smelly.shtml

I grew up in Sioux City in the 80s and you could smell a little, but even then the stockyards were significantly scaled back from their 1924 peak. I was there a few months ago and there is no smell any more.

Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by greedo on Thursday November 14, 2013 @09:29AM (#6732446)
I make that drive at least six times a year. Still stinks to high heaven. It's about the only thing that makes my kids look up from their iPads. With the stockyards closed, perhaps it's a longterm residual smell, or processing plants that are still around?

On a side note, I wonder how many head of cattle were slaughtered there over time.

Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by blankenship on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @05:54PM (#6729259)
My dad’s extended family was involved in the papermill business in the hills of North Carolina. The running joke was, “Smells like money.”
Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by dmckeon on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @07:57PM (#6729811)
That line has been running for over 2 millennia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecunia_non_olet

Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by JPKab on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @05:58PM (#6729279)
They weren't by any chance near Candler, were they? That entire town smells like ass.
Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by vanadium on Thursday November 14, 2013 @01:41AM (#6730968)
Having worked at a rendering plant for a couple of weeks during my (late) teenage years as an industrial temp worker, well, I can tell you what comes out of those places beats just about anything imaginable. Manure pits? Slaughterhouses? Way too fresh, my friends, to get anywhere near the full experience we endured. Think slow-cooked rot--and we were the ones on cleanup duty picking up bones and other ephemera left behind.

Here's a good taste of what one could expect, and it really was amazingly terrible prior to the stench becoming peripheral from exposure: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendering_%28animals%29

A friend and I spent an entire summer working jobs nobody in our (typically) white, middle-class peer group would dare even consider to touch in order to understand for ourselves just how important and respectful these roles were in our daily lives. And boy, let me tell you, it was an amazing and formative experience; I wouldn't trade those experiences for the world. It was "Dirty Jobs" 10 years before the show came out, and in more than a couple of cases, likely illegal given our age versus risk at the time.

Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by MichaelGG on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @05:36PM (#6729163)
It smells pretty bad, but by the end of a day I just don't notice it anymore. Unless standing right near the manure pit.
Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by prawn on Thursday November 14, 2013 @12:13AM (#6730679)
Reminds me of this horrific and epic Rolling Stone article about pig farms. It's long, but worth reading:

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/boss-hog-the-dark-s...

Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by code_duck on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @06:04PM (#6729295)
You can get 'used' to a smell of a papermill, I guess except that typically the fumes and particulates are toxic. There's a difference between merely experiencing an odor and ingesting unhealthy chemicals through respiration, though often people seem to not realize that the former often means the latter.
Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by phaus on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @06:42PM (#6729450)
I disagree. I spent almost a year at Fort Gordon in Augusta, GA for military training. That was 2003, I still remember what it smells like.
Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by jlgreco on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @07:05PM (#6729558)
I spent 18 years in a papermill town (the company, or the family that owned it, basically owned the entire town). Still remember what it smelled like, but it stops bothering you for the most part after awhile.

The real issue is that they switch up what they are making every few months or so, so the smell changes periodically. Whenever that happens you start noticing the smell again for a few more days. After a few years you'll become pretty good at ignoring that general class of smells though.

Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by poulsbohemian on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @09:01PM (#6730061)
Agreed - there is a paper mill about 45 minutes drive from where I live and the smell really depends on the day. Some days you can drive by and not even notice an odor. Other days your eyes are watering. Driving the other direction about an hour there are mint growers and processors (they ferment it in mobile fermenters). I don't even like mint, but it makes for a nice aroma when the entire valley is minty fresh.
Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by code_duck on Thursday November 14, 2013 @12:09AM (#6730664)
The REAL issue is that they're poisoning everyone. It's hard for your organs to ignore that.
Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by jlgreco on Thursday November 14, 2013 @12:29AM (#6730745)
You keep saying that, but I'm not actually seeing it. Industry isn't good for you, but it is pretty damn low on my list of concerns.
Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by code_duck on Thursday November 14, 2013 @03:57PM (#6735511)
Nonsense. There is absolutely no question that emissions from papermills include chemicals and particulates that are harmful to human health. Whether you, personally are cognizant of it consciously is a different matter.

From http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_paper

"Pulp and paper is the third largest industrial polluter to air, water, and land in both Canada and the United States, and releases well over 100 million kg of toxic pollution each year.[5]

Worldwide, the pulp and paper industry is the fifth largest consumer of energy, accounting for four percent of all the world's energy use. The pulp and paper industry uses more water to produce a ton of product than any other industry."

This affects each of us negatively regardless of whether we notice or are concerned.

Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by code_duck on Thursday November 14, 2013 @02:17PM (#6734745)
I was really disagreeing with the post I was responding too, and it seems you're more disagreeing with that than with my statement.

I don't think anyone can ever get fully accustomed to the presence of toxic chemicals in the air. Your body and mind are doing their best to make sure you're aware of them.

Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by inafield on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @06:14PM (#6729339)
I'm not sure what is worse, pigs or chickens.
Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by devrelm on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @08:57PM (#6730045)
As someone who grew up on a farm which at one point had around 800 hogs and 5000 chickens,

chickens.

Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by jlgreco on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @07:28PM (#6729669)
Good point, they may actually be tied. Chickens make cows smell good in comparison...
Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by amiramir on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @05:39PM (#6729179)
A friend of mine who is an industrial photographer got an assignment to photograph an anchovy processing plant. He said that you could smell the plant from over ten miles away. Part of his contract was to have all of his clothes and equipment replaced since there was no way to get the smell out.
Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by curiousphil on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @05:55PM (#6729263)
ha ha, I can confirm. I live and work in Nampa and the beet factory puts off a stink like you wouldn't believe. What's awesome is how the smell transforms from day to day. Some days it smells like strong peanut butter, some days it smells kind of musty and some days it smells extremely putrid. Luckily I moved across town a few years ago and the smell rarely makes it to my subdivision.
Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by witek on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @07:08PM (#6729575)
Nothing beats a fish sauce factory. Fermenting fish, mhmm...
Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by jlgreco on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @07:30PM (#6729678)
I wonder what it is like to live near a Surströmming factory...
Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by elwell on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @07:12PM (#6729593)
In Singapore it is illegal to bring Durian indoors; its odor is so pungent.
Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by yen223 on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @08:14PM (#6729890)
Durians are some of the tastiest fruit out there. Could never understand why people can't stand the smell. Although I did grow up with them.
Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by parasubvert on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @11:26PM (#6730508)
The best description of Durian I've read: "It smells rank to the unaccustomed, like someone mixed rotting bananas with unwashed feet and baby poop, but tastes quite a bit better."

They do taste good, I can attest.

Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by cwbrandsma on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @05:58PM (#6729277)
Can confirm, I grew up on a dairy near Twin Falls Idaho, and now live in Boise (near Nampa). Occasionally I can smell that sugar beet plant from my house and it is as bad or worse than any dairy.
Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by yen223 on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @08:12PM (#6729874)
Y'all never had to study next to a latex-processing factory. Smelled like a million old sneakers. Consider yourselves lucky.
Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by Wingman4l7 on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @06:45PM (#6729464)
Surprised no one has yet mentioned the uniquely awful smell of driving past a chicken farm on a hot day.
Re:Sriracha founder reveals the 'secret' wholesale price of ... by tracker1 on Wednesday November 13, 2013 @05:55PM (#6729262)
I think the worst smell I've ever been near would be a dry dog food plant...