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So you think you love bacon, huh? Well will you profess the same undying love for the crispy, deliciously greasy pork if a pound of it were to set you back $10? Well, it might be time to brace yourself for that kind of heartbreaking blow—that is, if the trend keeps raging on.
Since April, the price of pork belly (the cut from which bacon originates) has reached an all-time high. Today, the average cost of bacon hovers at around $6 per pound. That's a spike of 174 percent, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And prices are expected to continue to climb, a risk management consultant at FCStone Group told Bloomberg. At that rate, we could see $10 bacon by the end of the year if things continue the way they are now.
The root of this issue is simple supply and demand. With a culinary obsession as supercharged as this one—America is literally putting bacon on EVERYTHING—prices have followed suit. Whenever we find a new, zany use for the salty stuff—ice cream, peanut-butter "bombs", pizza crust, overloaded BLTs, mac-and-cheese quesadillas, and even bacon-flavored gum—we contribute to its rising cost. This craze is also ironic because it was, in part, born from bacon being relatively cheap and plentiful. Well, until recently. I guess now we're just completely hooked on it.
But maybe we shouldn't get too flustered about steadily increasing price points. After all, bacon is bouncing back from a five-year low in terms of retail value. Plus, there is a bright side: Consumer prices at the supermarket are lower than they were last summer, when a pig virus decimated pork supplies and pushed prices up by 20 percent. So keep stuffing your face with bacon and worry about the shortage of another breakfast staple instead.
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