Is there a pig shortage?

Walking down the smokey goodness aisle at the grocer’s today, I saw - to my utter shock - that Oscar Meyer bacon was priced at $8.99/lb. NINE FUCKING DOLLARS? For Oscar Meyer? Even Farmland was up to nearly $7/lb. What insanity is this? Have pigs finally learned to fly? I still have about six pounds in the freezer from when it was on sale several months ago, but I fear for those of you who didn’t have bacon foresight.

My wife just pointed out to me that an ad came in the mail today from that very store, touting a “two for one” sale on that very bacon. So they jacked the price up to double what it normally is, then have a TFO “sale”. Bastards.

Man, you had me thinking pretty hard for a moment there! I need to figure out what to charge people for pork this year ( I raise pigs on a very small scale) and was thinking I need to dramatically raise my prices

“Something” seemingly happened in the early part of this year that sent hog futures from the $60 range to the $70 range.

Not sure if that translates to the price of Oscar Mayer or not really, though.

Ack, CBOT chart URLs no workie.

Pink, smelly gold mine. SUCCESS!

The people who owned the pork belly contracts were saying, “Hey, we’re losing all our damn money, and Christmas is around the corner, and I ain’t gonna have no money to buy my son the G.I. Joe with the kung-fu grip! And my wife ain’t gonna f… my wife ain’t gonna make love to me if I got no money!”

Do you ship? How much per pound?

:wink:

My Future Farmers of America contact is no more, so I have to buy pig that I don’t know.

Aren’t those the same investors who switched their holdings to FCOJ (frozen concentrated orange juice) instead? :smiley:

I bought great Amish/country raised bacon on the way home tonight, best stuff in the world, at my Menonite grocery. $4.19/lb. I do think this might be 20% more than I was paying six months ago. Not sure. Certainly not like the price increase in pine nuts. :eek::eek:

I can still get a slab of ribs for $12.99, either from a dry rub, Memphis style place or a regular, wet style from a place down the road.

Damn! There are scores of wild hogs around where I live. I could be sitting on some true Texas black gold!

Barely related to this: I was horrified today to see the local grocery advertising ‘Meat Franks’ for 69 cents a pound. I don’t want to know what kind of meat those things are made from.

We’re thinking of buying Reggiano by the gram.

I know I’ve been buying a lot of bacon lately, but that’s mostly because it’s tomato season, which means BLTs.

LOL. I need to watch Trading Places again.

At least the price of beef seems to be doing ok. A piece of round eye roast the size of my leg is going for about fifteen bucks at the store near my house. So Far I’ve bought eight pieces of them, between my mums and grandma’s, we’re eating brisket sandwiches until Christmas. :smiley:

I don’t know if there’s a pig shortage, but I have noticed pork prices spike here a little bit. Where pork shoulder could typically be found in the 89 cent to $1.29 per pound range a year ago, it’s in the $1.29 to $1.79 range now.

Are you sure? Shaws had a buy one get one free sale on Ben and Jerry’s this summer, and I figured they must have upped the prices a lot, though not quite double. I mean, they couldn’t be selling it for $4 a pint otherwise when everyone else does for $2.50 to $3, right? Turns out I was wrong, and they’ve been selling it for $4 since then. I can’t imagine why anyone would pay more to buy it from them than even the gas station asks for it, but…

Positive. OM bacon always sells for around $5.00. I’ve purchased it before on sale at $3.00.

Here’s a chart of pork bellies.

Here’s a chart of lean hogs.

I believe the spike in pork bellies was due to a short squeeze coming as that month’s contract was expiring. A trader got stuck short and was forced to pay ridiculously high prices to liquidate his positions.

I suspect the problem is not with the pigs, but with the dollars.