You can stop worrying about bacon. There are plenty of pigs in this country.
Every fall I write a story called Pork Powerhouses, a ranking of the 25 largest pork producers in the U.S. The 2012 article just hit the streets at Agriculture.com.
There are more than 3 million sows in production for the 25 largest firms, a gain of about 62,000 from 2011. Smithfield Foods tops the ranking with 862,000 sows (1.089 million worldwide). That’s a jump of 24,049 sows from last year.
Some farms are cutting back right now, culling sows hard, and sending hogs to market at lighter weights because of rising corn and soybeans prices, thanks to drought in the Midwest. In the short term, and through the winter, there is no need to worry about bacon -- at least in the U.S.
