Bacon Shortage…Bull

CALHOUN COUNTY, S.C. (WOLO) — The ‘unavoidable’ bacon shortage you’ve been hearing about this week may not have such a huge impact in South Carolina after all. A Midlands pig farmer clears the confusion. “No cause for panic,” says Midlands farmer Emile DeFelice. He is putting to rest rumors of a looming worldwide bacon shortage. He own Caw Caw Creek Farm. He addressed an article concerning European pig farmers suffering huge losses due to high pig feed costs, caused by drought and harvest failure…all of which it claimed will lead to drastically higher bacon prices. DeFelice says don’t believe the hype. “If you read the article carefully, they’re talking about a 1% reduction in supply,” said DeFelice. “The average American will still eat 45 pounds of pork a year. If you have to cut down to 40…Really? it’s not that big a deal.” He agrees he’s paying more for the 800 pounds a day of corn/soy bean feed. That’s three tons a week, more than four thousand dollars a month. However, American consumers will be able to adjust to higher bacon prices by making other choices. ‘We’re not robots. We don’t have to eat the same thing everyday. If one gets expensive or boring to you, switch, to something else for a while.” At the end of the day, he says, cost cycles in agriculture are part of the ebb and flow of the industry, which means you may still be able to bring home the bacon.