Millennials have been blamed for a lot of things. From using all our house down payment money on avocado toast to killing the once-thriving white dwarf of a napkin market, we've certainly taken the blame for a lot of different societal changes. But there's one piece of grim news that we are almost certainly responsible for: Bacon prices are skyrocketing.
"Americans are bacon crazy," said culinary consultant Bianca Borges, according to The New York Post. "I've seen so many bacon-flavored products coming on the market. Some will use actual bacon to flavor them -- soda, candy, popcorn -- and not only that, but non-edible products are using bacon as a flavoring too. Lip balm, perfume, toothpaste, sunscreen ... Pork belly is trending on every single progressive menu you see."
Indeed, Americans bought approximately 14 percent more bacon in 2016 than they did in 2013 and purchased around $4 million of packaged bacon in 2015, according to WNYW.
Thanks to hipsters and other bacon lovers, wholesale pork bellies (the part of the pig that gets turned into bacon) are almost 75 percent more expensive than they were at the beginning of 2017, notes The Post.
Head to the grocery store and you'll most likely see pounds of bacon priced between $4.50 and $5.60. In mid-June, those coveted cured fatty pork strips were 26 percent more expensive than at the start of the year, and it has been 60 years since there has been such low numbers of frozen reserves of the meat.
But despite the worrying news, Borges said that bacon addicts will probably survive this one.
"If you're experiencing pork panic, take a few deep breaths," Borges told The Post. "The colder months are going to bring back pork production."
That should mean that prices will drop a little, and while you might see bacon and pork belly prices rise a tiny bit in restaurants in the meantime, it's unlikely to be significant.
"[Restaurants] know that the prices are going to come down again within half a year -- they prefer to keep prices stable and not risk customer dissatisfaction," said Borges. "They can recover those costs in other ways."
Fingers crossed -- but if you happen to see bacon on sale at the supermarket, you'll want to stock up.