September 26, 2012

The Impending Global Bacon Shortage… and Climate Change

We are all so very screwed. Here is a CBS News report to ruin your day:

Britain’s National Pig Association, “the voice of the British pig industry,” warned recently that a global shortage of bacon and pork “is now unavoidable” because of shrinking herds…[A]nnual pig production for Europe’s main pig producers fell across the board between 2011 and 2012, a trend that “is being mirrored around the world.” The group tied the decline to increased feed costs, an effect of poor harvests for corn and soybeans…

But the projected decline isn’t news to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In its monthly outlook report (PDF) from August, the department linked a reduction next year in the United States to this year’s drought in the Midwest.

The USDA estimates that US pork production in 2013 will total 23 billion pounds, which seems like a yacht-load of chops and bacon, until you consider that it would constitute a roughly 1.3 percent decrease from 2012’s estimated total, which leaves Americans with barely 45 pounds of pork per capita in 2013. In 2012, it was over 46 pounds per capita.

Sure, the forecasted shortage is relatively slight, if significant. But in case you’re having trouble grasping the concept of the delicious tonnage that’s at stake, here’s some visual aid:

Bacon. wEnDaLicious/FlickrBacon. wEnDaLicious/Flickr

Bacon. Martino's doodles/FlickrAnarchy in the Bacon. Martino’s doodles/Flickr

The Greatest Bacon In The World. Martino's doodles/FlickrThe Greatest Bacon In The World. Martino’s doodles/Flickr(Also, bacon sundaes.)

I think Netroots Nation’s executive director put it best:

As CBS News reported, the projected US pork deficit is in large part attributed to the epic drought that swept through the Midwest this summer. The odds that this record-breaking heat wave occurred without anthropogenic global warming? A high estimate of 1 in 1.6 million, and a conservative estimate of 1 in 100,000.

In related news, fracking chemicals can easily leak into major water supplies and threaten the purity of your beer.

You read that right: The manmade forces of climate change and hyrdraulic fracturing are imperiling America’s bacon and brews.

If that doesn’t turn you on to a life of environmentalism, then I don’t know what will.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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