The UK industry group, National Pig Association (NPA), greets its website visitors with a "Save Our Bacon" campaign logo, as it predicts bacon and pork shortage on a global scale in 2013.
Below the logo, an impressive number of the Members of Parliament in Britain can be seen voicing their support for the pig association's campaign.
Urging shoppers to only buy British bacon, marked with a British Red Tractor logo, one may wonder why the group touts this as a global concern however, and not just an attempt by lobbyists to protect the British pork industry.
Among the reasons listed by the group as to why this concerns the rest of the world is, among others, the great drought conditions that hit the corn and soybean crop this year, two crops that are essential pig feed.
As the number of slaughtered pigs could fall 10% in the second half of next year, European pork prices are predicted to double, according to the NPA press release. In China, the government is putting pork into cold storage, as a buffer against shortages and high prices next year.
Pig farmers in the U.S. have also been scaling down herds, as pig feed has become increasingly expensive, causing warehouses to stock up on supply, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
A Kentucky farmer allegedly fed his cattle candy worms "just to survive," according to a Huffington Post article.
The solution, according to NPA, is for retailers to take responsibility and pay pig farmers more, in order for them to survive and continue to produce the popular meat.
