• Bacon prices are increasing.
• There is an outbreak of a virus in pigs.
• You may be safe, but your wallet may be affected.

Five dollars and fifty-five cents. That is the average price you would pay for a pound of bacon today. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that’s over sixty cents more than a year ago and over a dollar more than three years ago. The meat retail store at UGA processes and sells bacon on site. The lab manager, Ryan Crowe, says this local store may raising prices as well.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that an outbreak of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus impacts the forecast of U.S. pork output for 2014. UGA Animal and Dairy Science Professor Michael Azain explains,

“In the United States we process about a hundred million pigs per year and the estimates right now are that about three to five million piglets have died so those will not make it to the food chain. And that’s why pork prices have gone up.”

The spike in prices may be troubling, but the good news…

“It’s of absolutely no danger to humans. The virus does not affect humans,” says Azain.

The USDA says that production losses from virus-related deaths in 2014 are expected to be partially offset by increases in slaughter weights.

Noel Couch, Grady Newsource