Last week a trade organization for pork producers sent out an alarmist press release threatening that next year may see a bacon shortage in the wake of this year's problems with the global corn crop. It's obvious if you scratch the surface that this is little more than a marketing gambit, and a successful one to boot. But that never stopped the presses before, and it hasn't stopped them since. Thus this week we have been treated to a rash of "Bacon Shortage Forecast" news stories that breathlessly describe a future in which there is no bacon.
The first and most obviously suspicious thing about this news item is that it comes from an organization whose sole purpose is to convince the public to buy more pork. The National Pig Association of the United Kingdom is hardly going to put out a press release saying "Bacon supplies are fine, there is nothing to worry about" or even "2013 may see slight increase in bacon prices." That's not the kind of thing that will grab headlines, and more to the point, it's not the kind of thing that will frighten people into buying more bacon.
