Pork shortage? Say it ain't so.

[ipsedixit]

According to industry groups "a world shortage of pork and bacon next year is now unavoidable"

Is the end of the world nigh?

Read more here: http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-pork-bacon-shortage-20120924,0,5901787.story and here http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09... and probably lots of other places ...

[lifeasbinge]

simplest answer in the world - buy locally produced pork, or buy what's good and in decent supply locally

[Midknight]

It's going to be a porkalypse!

[kurtt]

There Will Be No Bacon Shortage

How a British trade association press release sent the Internet into a senseless panic.

http://www.slate.com/articles/busines...

[Harters]

I think the funny thing about that article is to describe the National Pig Association as "obscure". It may be obscure where that website lives. It isnt obscure in the country where the Association lives.

The fact that there is sloppy journalism in north America so that press reports are simply reproduced and "upsold" without being read properly perhaps says a lot.

[Davwud]

So says Chicken Little.

DT

[porker]

I'm not losing sleep over it (unless theres a porker shortage)....its just that I'm hoping to be able to afford this for Mrs. Porker next Christmas

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gadg...

[thymeoz]

OMG. What else can I say?!

[porker]

how about "porkapalooza"?

[John Francis]

That's in Europe. "In U.S. warehouses, pork supply soared to a record last month, rising 31% to 580.8 million pounds at the end of August from a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The surge came as farmers scaled down their herds as feeding the animals became increasingly expensive." Could be an export opportunity there.

[Harters]

Certainly in the UK, many pig farmers are going out of business. They are caught in the crossfire from cheap imported pork (although of low welfare standards) and from the high welfare, free range or organic UK producers. Those in the middle are increasingly finding they can't compete with either.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment...

[porker]

I ain't no market specialist, but "That's in Europe" might not be so accurate. If American producers are culling the herd now (creating the current glut) because of rising feed costs, the future herd will be in short supply. Add to this similar worldwide problems and trouble may be a brewin.
There might be a futures opportunity there.
Might raise my own pigs come spring......

[mpjmph]

Yep, that's why the pork shortage is projected to begin next year... Same thing is likely to happen with beef, for the same reasons.

[KailuaGirl]

This ongoing drought across the U.S. is causing major crop failures/feed shortages, which in turn has farmers culling their herds. They're even killing some of their breeding stock. Astronomical prices are predicted in the next year or two for beef and pork.