September 25, 2012

"2013 bacon shortage 'unavoidable.'"

It's all about the drought and the cost of soy and corn. We eat bacon every day at Meadhouse, so this is alarming news.

43 comments:

chickelit said...

Time to invest in pork belly futures?

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Argggg! Running in circles waving my hands over my head. What next, free range chickens learning to fly and migrating to south America?! Cows running away to California?

Before we know it we will be eating Soylent Green, but only if it's lowcarb.

Darrell said...

It's a concession Obama had to make to appease the Muslims. We all can agree on that. What price peace? Bacon. Tasty bacon. Sad that.

Lucien said...

Don't worry, as soon as the situation hits "Lard-Con II" the government is authorized to release supplies from the Strategic Pork Reserve. Though there had been concerns about a historically low inventory during the seocnd Clinton administration, stockpiles have increased markedly under Michelle Obama's watchful eye.

Lyle said...

Should have stocked up on pigs like you did light bulbs. :)

Unknown said...

Ethanol.

Paul said...

Aw hell, we are up to our kissers in wild hogs here in Texas. So at least here there won't be any bacon shortage.

Darrell said...

Andy R will make this about hog. And his deep, deep love for Obama.

Meanwhile, Madonna threatens to strip naked if Obama is elected. If the past two weeks of Obama lies hasn't done it, this certainly should make you vote for Mitt. Must you rub your peepers until they look like glacé cherries
to avoid that sight? Hell no!

tim said...

Paul hit on it. Get yourself an AR and head to the woods. Bacon on the hoof.

rhhardin said...

Morningstar breakfast strips are good.

They're soy based. Cut out the middleman.

They're good so long as you don't overnuke them.

Tyrone Slothrop said...

We buy bacon ends and scraps from the meat department. It's actually better than average bacon, but it doesn't come in those tidy strips.

Chip Ahoy said...

I always overcooked pork roasts. I keep forgetting how fast that goes. This last time I overdid it with the pepper on the outer coating, it would have been better without any coating at all. But I did brine it in a flavorful liquid overnight because I was lazy, and I did wrap it with bacon, and I also watched it like a hawk, took its temperature three times, didn't care if the bacon burned, which it didn't. And by those three things, it was the most delicious moist not overcooked pork roast I ever had. Except for all that pepper which I scrapped off.

And then last night I turned three slices of that into tonkatsu by breading it with Panko and deep frying for a few minutes, and the whole time I was devouring it I was thinking, "what took you so long to discover this, you dummkopf?"

Tyrone Slothrop said...

I could probably raise a pig here at Rancho Deluxe. I just know I wouldn't have the heart to bust a cap on him when the time came-- pigs are too darn cute.

edutcher said...

Louis Winthorpe's going long on pork bellies.

Ann Althouse said...

We eat bacon every day at Meadhouse

Watch those nitrates, kid.

This from The Blonde.

bengrayen said...

Main input to produce bacon is corn.

Forty-one percent of U.S. corn crop last year was used to produce motor fuel.-- At the behest of the central planners.

Curious George said...

Shortage? No. The market will see to that. But the price will go up.

Julie C said...

I will need to check and see how long bacon can be successfully frozen. Assuming it can keep for 3 - 6 months, I'll buy a supply right now from Costco.

We invested in a nice, non-frost free freezer. Keeps things frozen solid without developing freezer burn.

Might be an asset in the coming hyper-inflation era.

YoungHegelian said...

The bacon problem is bad enough, but this means that pork shoulders used for pulled pork is gonna go though the roof, too!

Arrrrrggghhhhhhh!

Oh, fond farewell, Western Civilization as we know it! We shall sorely miss thee!

MadisonMan said...

Bacon does freeze. It affects the fat texture, but it can be done.

@Tyrone, Trader Joe's sells those bacon ends, just $2.99/pound. Bargain! I suppose that price'll go up soon.

Cedarford said...

Curious George said...
Shortage? No. The market will see to that. But the price will go up.

=============
No, the market will reflect the shortage by jacking up prices to lower the demand for a finite amount of bacon available.

As for corn to ethanol, with a plush government subsidy available for doing so - that is obscene.

Bacon will not be the only food jacked up 35-55%.

Æthelflæd said...

All that corn going into gas tanks at the behest of the EPA instead of into pork bellies.

Æthelflæd said...

Ah, Cedarford beat me to it.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Drill, do it now! Shale oil whatever, we need our own source of fuel. Natural gas, clean coal, no nuclear.

Stop feeding the pig's corn into our gas tanks, grrrr! Coming from me a bacon loving lib, strange, eh? Using a food source to burn for fuel, when it needs to be fed to farm animals, just does not make sense, especially after this awful summer.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Decent, thickish sliced bacon in a 3-pound package is right around $11 at Sam's Club currently. Commence operation Fill the Freezer.

Cedarford said...

Inga - We need nukes, too. Whatever is reliable, safe, and low cost.

If we ever get to fusion reactors, keep in mind they will generate fission fuels for the most energy breakeven, and fission reactors in turn will need to be operated to both lower cost of fusion AND to produce the tritium needed for fusion.

Anonymous said...

Cedarford, not on any fault lines though.

traditionalguy said...

So quit paying huge Federal subsidies for ethanol to use all the pig's food supplies. Duh.

Carnifex said...

Burn hydrogen, most abundant element in the universe. Waste bi-product is water. No glowing canyons and caves from spent reactor rods. Most of the surface of the earth is covered with the base product(except for OPEC countries)! Hows that for bonuses.

Phil 314 said...

Bacon breakfast

Ralph L said...

For years, I cooked bacon with a fork and only rarely, buying the pre-cooked Hormel stuff for my fix. I'd bought some long tongs (silver, actually stainless) several years ago when I gave some as Xmas presents. Finally thought to use them to cook bacon--what a difference! No burnt fingers! No dropped/twisted slices. Now to find a way to confine the grease.

McTriumph said...

This could be almost as catastrophic as a second Obama administration.

McTriumph said...

Burn hydrogen, most abundant element in the universe.

Where does one find cheap hydrogen? One doesn't because it's very expense to produce. It doesn't exist as a free element.

Kirk Parker said...

McTriumph,

Indeed, elemental hydrogen is not a fuel, it's a storage medium.

The most accessible form of hydrogen as a fuel is CH4.

jaed said...

I will need to check and see how long bacon can be successfully frozen.

If you seal-a-meal it and then freeze in a deep freeze (zero degrees or below), maybe a year and a half. The seal-a-meal thingie is key to preventing freezer burn.

Curious George said...

"Cedarford said...
Curious George said...
Shortage? No. The market will see to that. But the price will go up.

=============
No, the market will reflect the shortage by jacking up prices to lower the demand for a finite amount of bacon available.

As for corn to ethanol, with a plush government subsidy available for doing so - that is obscene.

Bacon will not be the only food jacked up 35-55%."

That's what I said. And I guarantee there will not be oe day that my local supermarket won't have bacon on the shelf.

dreams said...

We need bacon, cake is too high carb.

Anonymous said...

Eating bacon everyday? Is Meadhouse going Atkins?

Original Mike said...

"We eat bacon every day at Meadhouse, so this is alarming news."

Buy a pig.

Meade said...

No one tell Bingo and Joey...
but we'll probably just switch from bacon to dog, snake, and grasshopper ( tough, tougher, and crunchy).

No, that does not mean we will be indulging in choom and maybe a little blow.

Known Unknown said...

Romney needs to go pro-bacon and work on this problem to sew-up the White House.

Unknown said...

Today Matthew Yglesias has an article in Slate that says this doesn't really affect US bacon, rather what we call "Canadian bacon," which is what the Brits call bacon.