By Krista Brooks
California State U.-Long Beach
UWIRE
I’m sure you’re all devastated about the news of the worldwide pork shortage.
Yes, this includes our favorite meat, bacon.
Last Thursday, Britain’s National Pig Association warned that the escalating numbers of shrinking herds are going cause an “unavoidable bacon shortage. ”
This ‘porkapocalypse” is due to the increase in cost of feeding these delicious animals, according to the pig industry.
If you’re still reading, let out that breath you’ve been holding — bacon will not be extinct as predicted.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts that the pork production of next year will be around 23 billion pounds, only a 1.3 percent decline in America.
Worldwide, it’s predicted that the availability will only be a 2 to 3 percent decrease per-capita.
Bacon has become a fad, or obsession, for American food lovers.
In 2010, the pork consumption reached an all-time high of 33.4 pounds per person a year, according to the Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service.
Europe may experience a lack of bacon within the next few years, but only a 10 percent decrease at most.
Do not freak out. There will still be bacon.
The bacon crisis has spun into an exaggerated epidemic. We can all blame the media, but let’s get serious.
If there was a terrible shortage of bacon in our future, we would all want to know about it immediately.
Thankfully, this issue is not as worse as forecasted by the United Kingdom, but the word “unavoidable” comes across very serious and scary.
The bacon in the United Kingdom is also different from the bacon that Americans eat with scrambled eggs and toast. The bacon in this region is from a different part of the animal, a meat familiar to us as “Canadian bacon.”
YouTube series “Epic Meal Time” will be happy to know that the price of bacon in Canada, however, will not be raised as high as in the U.S.
This predicted scarcity was due to a recent drought and rise of corn price.
This may raise the price of pork-per-pound within the next few years.
Steve Meyer, a consulting economist to the National Pork Board, predicts that prices will be raised at most to $3.75 per pound. This price is only 25 cents higher than present costs.
If you were freaking out about the loss of bacon — I know I was — rest assured that it will only be raised by a measly quarter, a price us bacon-lovers will have to pay.
