Monday, October 8, 2012

Hunk of Meat Monday: Bacon Shortage Looming

No more bacon?! 

The bacon for my corn
chowder soup
With the number of food items that we can now get bacon included in chocolate, ice cream, bloody marys, and oh lets not forget the traditional BLT, plain old fried up bacon or my corn chowder with bacon (recipe below) what would we do without one of America's favorite foods?

Britain's National Pig Association is reporting that because Europe's annual pig product decreased this past year, and producers are decreasing their herd size due to high feed costs that we could see a global shortage of bacon.

What about our farmers in the U.S. what is their story? The U.S. Department of Agriculture showed in its monthly outlook report from August, that we are also seeing a decrease in the number of pigs in the U.S. Again this is due to the high feed costs from poor corn and soybean crops (that is what hogs mostly eat). Plus, add in the fact that we are exporting more and more of our pork, China has seemed to catch onto the trend, will we be standing in line for our bacon ration?

No, probably not. In this Minnesota Public Radio report Iowa Farm Economist, Steve Meyer, stands that no one in the U.S. or around the world will be standing in line for bacon. However, you can expect to pay more for it next year due to lower availability. To be exact you could pay between 6-10% more for your bacon.

Honey you better start bringing home more bacon, or we aren't going to have bacon.


Corn Chowder
2 cups diced potatoes (I like using red with the skin on)
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
2 cans kernel corn with juice
1/4-1/2 bacon, fried and crumbled
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Sauce 1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
4 cups milk 

Just cover potatoes, onion and celery with with water (I actually like to use chicken broth) and cook until tender. Now add corn with juice, bacon, salt and paper. To make sauce mix butter and flour, over medium-low heat, and then slowly add milk. Stir until thick. Add sauce to rest of ingredients, stir and serve. This will make 8 to 10 cups. 





2 comments:

  1. I'll trade you bacon for beef. ;)

    Can't wait to try that corn chowder - looks delic!

    ReplyDelete

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