TROY, Mich., Nov. 20 (UPI) -- America consumes more than half its annual pork intake over the holidays, but this year the price of pig is rising and the holiday ham cut traditionally found on Thanksgiving and Christmas tables is in short supply.
The U.S. is apparently picky about its pork, with most American families preferring a seven pound spiral-cut half hams -- butchered in one continuous coiled cut around the bone. But due to the particularly devastating porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, which was so deadly it wiped out more than five percent of the nation's piglets, farmers fed remaining pigs longer to fatten them up and produce more meat for market.
Ironically, porkier pigs translate to a supply shortage of the country's most popular piece of holiday ham.
"This year has been a struggle for people that sell half hams because heavier hogs are coming to market," Brian Mariuz, CFO of HoneyBaked Ham Co.'s Michigan division, told Bloomberg. "Seven-pound hams are in the highest demand and in the lowest supply."
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While the price of pork typically fluctuates seasonally, usually it falls in the fourth quarter thanks to an increase in supply. This year, however, wholesale ham reached an all-time high of $1.4368 a pound and the wholesale price of the seven pound sprial-cut half ham has more than doubled, according to USDA data.
All this means grocers are not advertising the same discounts typically offered around this time of year. The pork shortage has also driven up the cost of other meats -- in greater demand as a substitute -- and also ironically reduced the cost of bacon, as fatter pigs provide more pork belly.
Despite the United States' pickiness about its preferred holiday ham cut, the pig is an animal American farmers use in its entirety.
According to the Atlantic, modern porcine farming practices use "the inedible parts of hogs -- blood, glands, bone, fat, and skin -- to produce everything from biofuels and fertilizers to insulin, pet food, and livestock feed."
"Rendering is an extremely green process," Jessica Meisinger, director at the National Renderers Association, told the Atlantic. "Rendering takes this extra [product] and uses it rather than sending it to the landfill or composting -- both of which allow natural decay to occur which results in large amounts of greenhouse gases."
