America Is Running Low On Bacon, But There’s No Need To Panic

During the dark and cold winter months, many of us turn to food for comfort. And, there is perhaps no food more comforting than good old bacon. Just smelling it being fried up automatically starts to make us feel warmer — and not just because the pan is hot. Unfortunately, this winter, America's bacon reserves are the lowest they've been in 50 years, GrubStreet reports. (The fact that America has even bacon reserves in the first place is already an amazing feat of porky goodness.) According to the Ohio Pork Council, farmers are raising "more pigs than ever." Still, they can't quite keep up with the demand for frozen pork belly, which is often used to make bacon. Bless them for trying. This whole bacon supply situation could cause a hike in bacon prices, which is a bummer since we count on that fatty, greasy deliciousness, but there's no real reason to panic. When we first heard all this bacon news, we worked ourselves up into a serious tizzy. And we weren't the only ones. People everywhere have been tweeting, writing, and screaming "BACON SHORTAGE!" But, thankfully, the New York Times swooped in to calm our nerves and set the record straight. The NYT reported that Steve Meyer, the vice president of pork analysis for EMI Analytics — what a job — said "To imply that there’s going to be some shortage of bacon is wrong. There’s plenty of hogs coming. There’s going to be plenty of bacon." The Ohio Pork Council also reported that although frozen reserves are low, American isn't likely to run out of bacon completely. So, we aren't facing a true bacon shortage, but it would be like us bacon lovers to freak out over low bacon "reserves".