Lean times ahead for world bacon supply

AUSTIN (KXAN) - What goes well with bacon?

What doesn’t?

At least that’s what you will hear from the customers of the popular Downtown Austin restaurant called Bacon .

“Just the taste, it’s delectable,” customer Marlon Davis said. “I try to eat bacon as much as possible.”

Other restaurants around the city have also taken to the trend. Downtown newcomer Blake’s on Sixth features a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich topped with a hearty helping of thick-sliced bacon.

But soaring feed prices due to drought and high demand for corn-based ethanol products are reducing the supply of pork on the market. This increases the price of the sinful snack we love most.

“In the last three or four months," Bacon general manager Jesse Fincher said, "bacon has been up about 70 cents on the pound.”

As bacon prices continue to go up with the supply shortage, consumers may ease up on how much bacon they buy. According to analysts, pork prices could increase another whole dollar per pound.

Bacon enthusiasts, however, are not too worried.

“People will still eat bacon,” Fincher said. “We’ll pay what we have to to get the goodness.”

Customers seem to agree with their whole hearts and stomachs.

“I would still buy bacon,” Benny VandenAvond said.

“It won’t slow me down, not one bit,” customer Jon Benton agrees. “Bacon is that good.”