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Here's a question for all you Freakonomic's fans out there: what do this week's stultifying heat indexes across much of the country have to do with the price of pork bellies?
If you answered that both are at or near record highs, then you get a gold star (you deserve something if you know the price of pork bellies). But you get two gold stars if you answered something along the lines of what was reported in Monday's Wall Street Journal...
On the list of foods that immediately conjure the taste of summer -- strawberries, peaches, watermelon, etc -- bacon is probably about as far down on the list as pumpkin pie. But, when the mercury is knocking on 95 and you want to get out of the kitchen as fast a possible, what do you turn to? A good old B.L.T.
The rest of the answer is straight out of Econ 101: the basic law of supply and demand. Americans' demand for bacon surges in the summer, hence driving up the price of pork bellies, from which bacon is made. But this year, the price of pork bellies is setting records -- Monday's price was $1.35 a pound, 53 percent higher than a year ago.
Why? Because hog farmers responded to the recession during the past couple years by reducing the size of their herds. To come full circle with the heat-hog connection, pigs take longer to reach their market weight when the weather is hot.
So if you want cheaper bacon, you might consider driving less. After all, the carbon emissions from your car contribute to global warming, global warming raises the temperatures, and apparently, pigs lose their appetite in the heat.
Now that's some freaky Freakonomics.
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8-03-2010 @3:35PM Too bad said... Too bad humans don't eat less when it's hot outside. A trip to any Wal-Mart or Orlando theme park will prove our appetites are alive and voracious.
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8-04-2010 @5:01PM Al Schrader said... Okay, here's a nice healthy bacon recipe for you to try. Take a half pound hunk of smoked slab bacon & brown it in a large cast iron pot. Add 4 cups of water, one head of cabbage stemmed & cut into quarters, two whole peeled Vidalia onions, two peeled & quartered Yukon Gold potatoes, and two peeled & halved carrots.
Boil, then simmer until the potatoes are fork tender, about 15 minuted. Serve with Bavarian mustard on the side. For dessert serve quartered fresh peaches dusted with powdered sugar....Al-
8-03-2010 @10:08PM aelfheld said... "After all, the carbon emissions from your car contribute to global warming, global warming raises the temperatures [...]"
In a word, nonsense.
'Global warming', that which is attributed to humankind, is an increasingly unsustainable hypothesis supported by cherry-picked data, flawed formulae, and ungrounded speculation.
The increased price of bacon has more to do with the state of the economy than the passage of the seasons.
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8-04-2010 @6:41AM gobo said... Those are lies, aelfheld, and they don't belong here. Global warming is a very real phenomenon that's supported by all data. It's not a hypothesis -- it's a reality.
8-04-2010 @4:24PM exoticdoc2 said... Aelfheld. Correct, global warming is nothing but an incredible hoax. The gurus of this religion were caught discussing their lies and hidden facts in their own emails. Such was the shame that one of the main gurus considered suicide. The data on the European glaciers that a group a scientists won a Nobel "prize" for was proven to be false (the Nobel people have shot themselves in the foot so many times at this point their "prize has become meaningless). The data collection methods have been flawed and incomplete, the conclusions absurd and hasty. The earth has actually been in a cooling trend for over a decade. CO2 is not a pollutant, and it is also not the major so-called "greenhouse gas," that would be water vapor, which is primarily determined by the oceans. The sun is the primary determinant for our climate, not mere humans.
8-04-2010 @9:38PM AnotherFactFinder said... Finally some 'Voices of Reason.' Also do not forget NASA quietly announcing that their satalite temperature measurements were incorrectly reported which were the basis for quite a lot of the global warming 'data' mentioned by ?gobo? above.
8-05-2010 @10:35AM gobo said... Sounds like 'exoticdoc' and 'factfinder' have been watching Glenn Beck and soaking up his usual brand of made-up slander. Really sad, guys, Get out of here. This is a food blog.
8-04-2010 @10:32AM kd said... Wait a sec. There's apparently a natural increase in bacon demand over the summer (as you covered here), but have you not stopped to realize that /food, among many many many other food sites, has been flogging bacon ice cream, candy, cookies, entrees, wraps, toppings, and snacks in every form, in addition to pork belly in every imaginable configuration and flavoring ... for nigh-on three to five years? So that every upscale, non-vegetarian resto in the world has to have a pork belly dish somewhere on the menu. And you don't see a connection between demand for bacon, the price of bacon, and these facts? That's not freaky at all. Sounds perfectly predictable and normal to me. And "climate change" doesn't even enter into that discusson.
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8-04-2010 @3:01PM mellorsqst said... more of those global warming supporter morons.. bacon and global warming.. gee, i see the connection.. i am on lsd, like the author...
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8-04-2010 @5:30PM GG said... Me, too! Oh, excuse me...my masseuse is here. I'll get back to ya.
8-05-2010 @10:37AM gobo said... Man-made climate change is very, very real. Feel free to pretend it isn't. Your kids will be the ones suffering.
8-04-2010 @3:47PM rjeabz said... When people slow their intake of bacon, the farmer should generally respong with a lower price. From the Law of Supply and Demand.
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8-24-2010 @4:32PM Bobby said... Supply & demand doesn't mean squat anymore. Being a commodity, the pricing is bid up on a whim by market makers when they & they alone decide to. Name me one product you haven't seen stocked in a store due to shortage? Oil's being bid up & down between the $70-80 range & inventories are up & demand doesn't have a thing to do with it. Sound economic fundamentals have little to do with anything you actually see bid in either direction anymore. They made homes into a commodity as well & look how that ended up.
8-04-2010 @3:55PM Cathy said... I am sure it has something to do with the Federal Government deficit spending and The Federal Reserve printing and diluting our dollar which cause INFLATION!
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8-04-2010 @3:54PM Julie said... I'm a true "fat fan" and that chunk of roasted bacon looks fabulous to me, LOL!
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8-04-2010 @4:17PM Dottie said... The crazy laws that PETA and HSUS push on our farmers don't help the price of bacon either. Just wait to you see the price of eggs in a year or two, again thanks to PETA andHSUS.
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8-04-2010 @5:34PM jeff said... Well I think and certainly hope this election followed by the next presidential elections will really show without any PC what America wants and thinks. It is clear good taxpaying people have seen enough and good government is demanded. Commonsense is in order. So whether they censor or not it wonn't matter or change opinions.
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8-05-2010 @10:38AM gobo said... This is a food blog. Not a political blog.
8-04-2010 @5:40PM Joe Turner said... WOW ! When you look at Bacon (Pork Belly) in its semi-natural state of being non sliced, it is clearly just a whole lot of FAT !
Luckily, I lot cooks off and what is left is much more lean. But the picture here is enough to make one stop and think about their arteries.
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8-04-2010 @9:18PM Jim said... It's funny Joe mentioned the excessive fat content of the uncut piece of meat; it made me think of my childhood when my dad used to raise pigs on a strict three grain diet-with no kitchen scraps at all. The meat was the inverse of what you typically find in the store,namely; solid lean meat with a narrow 1/8th inch strip of fat on the outside. It was much better tasting than store-bought meat! The sausage was equally divine!