Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Bacon and Supply/Demand Graphs. What a great breakfast combination.

A nice article to practice graphing Supply and Demand.  

America’s Lust for Bacon Is Pushing Pork Belly Prices to Records


Once considered an unhealthy byproduct, bacon has become a guilty pleasure—with prices to match.

Excerpt for graphing:
""Some analysts say bacon, meanwhile, is becoming a yearlong staple that consumers are eager to procure. That voracious demand has left wholesalers in a squeeze. Retailers “have turned hand-to-mouth, buying only what they need, waiting for production to increase and prices to decline,” said Dennis Smith, a commodities broker at Archer Financial Services in Chicago. 
Pig farmers are struggling to keep up with demand. The national hog herd rose to a seasonal record of 71.7 million head in early June, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, up 3% from a year earlier. 
But it hasn’t been enough to satiate bacon demand. Stocks of pork bellies in commercial freezers fell to 31.6 million pounds in May, down 59% from a year earlier and the lowest figure for the month since the USDA began keeping track in the 1950s.""
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