Shane Smith, chief executive officer of Smithfield Foods, was quoted by Bloomberg on Wednesday while speaking at The Wall Street Journal's Global Food Forum in Chicago. Smith said:

"There's a concentration of people in the industry who grow their own corn, they grow their corn and they feed it to the animal.

"They're going to have to make a decision. Do I sell my corn and just forget about the animal?"

Smith explained producers are losing as much as $80 per head as China's pork demand wanes and feed costs skyrocket. A severe drought across the Midwest has sent corn prices soaring this month, squeezing producer profits. Also, the cost of farm equipment continues to rise, and inflation remains sticky -- all of this is an indication, as the CEO explained, might lead to producers shrinking herd sizes.