Bacon shortage called ‘baloney,’ but prices are expected to rise

Published Oct 1, 2012 at 10:00 am (Updated Oct 1, 2012)

Take a deep breath and relax, bacon-lovers, it appears fears of a worldwide bacon shortage may be hogwash. At least that’s what U.S. agricultural experts are saying in response to a trade group in Europe that last week declared a bacon shortage was “unavoidable,” citing a sharp decline in the continent’s pig herd and drought-inflated feed costs. The American Farm Bureau Federation is dismissing the claim as “baloney.” “Use of the word ‘shortage’ caused visions of (1970s-style) gasoline lines in a lot of people’s heads, and that’s not the case,” says Steve Meyer, president of Iowa-based Paragon Economics and a consultant to the National Pork Producers Council and National Pork Board. “If the definition of shortage is that you can’t find it on the shelves, then no, the concern is not valid. If the concern is higher cost for it, then yes.” The economics of the current drought are likely to nose up prices for bacon and other pork products next year, by as much as 10%. “Pork supplies will decrease slightly as we go into 2013,” Farm Bureau economist John Anderson says. “But the idea that there’ll be widespread shortages, that we’ll run out of pork, that’s really overblown.” You can bite into the full story here.