The Shopping Cart Economist

I am the world’s worst blogger. Sorry, I know it. I should get back in here more often, but with what’s going on in the world health environment it was a really motivator to get in here and blog today.

First, let’s talk about flu. It’s important to note that flu is passed by coming into contact with a sick individual through the mouth, eyes, or nose transmission. (That means cover when you sneeze please!). In this case, the flu is suspected to have been caused by animal to human transmission (hence the “swine” in Swine Flu).

It’s then even more important to stress that you will not contract this flu by simply eating pork. (And no, I am not going to get into all the religious implications about some religions and their thoughts around eating pork).

But this does have an implications for your wallet. It means that you’re going to find pork on sale through unadvertised specials. It’s the product of pandemic hysteria around H1N1 “swine” flu. So even though you won’t get swine flu eating pork, it doesn’t matter, the perception is already out there and stores are going to have to contend with it in order to move inventory.

Industries that are affected from bad press tend to mark down their products as a way to combat negative publicity. We saw this a few years ago with all the hype around Avian flu. Poultry prices fell. And we saw it recently with peanuts, where Skippy and Jif slashed prices and put out high-value coupons to both move the inventory and to let customers know they weren’t going to get salmonella from eating jarred peanut butter.

So if you haven’t already seen cheap pork in your supermarket (cheap being $1.49 or less per pound) you will. And it will be a good time to fill your freezer.

I do feel sympathy for the pork industry overall because animals, like people, get sick. It is what it is. This flu has nothing to do with quality or safety of the meat itself (although I would imagine that cleaner, safer facilities could have positive impact on limiting transmission). The media has done a good job trying to convey that eating pork won’t make you sick, and many countries and even the World Health Organization (WHO) feel that the pig is being maligned unfairly. And rightly so. It’s not the animal’s fault - it’s just how illness works.

That said, I am going to plug the US Pork Industry and those who work in it. This is a good wake-up call to get a better sense of where your food is coming from and ask questions about its origins. We do have many responsible pork producers in the US. And the USDA does a decent job overseeing them. In an already tough economy, it’s not a time to let this industry fall because of what’s going on with this flu.

However, I have to say, I am going to be skipping the imported varieties. So as an example, Safeway has imported pork baby back ribs on sale for .99c a pound starting tomorrow. Sounds like a good deal, right? They normally retail for $3.99-$4.99 per pound when they are produced in the US. However, these imports come from China. All I can say is “bleck". Seeing as how I am pretty much on a boycott of any foods directly imported from China, I’m going to have to pass on these, swineflu or no swineflu. And of course if I’m going to buy pork, I’m going to buy as locally as possible.

As a bit of humor, I’m reminded of an episode of The Simpsons where Lisa decided to become a vegetarian:

Homer: Are you saying you’re never going to eat any animal again? What about bacon?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Ham?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Pork chops?
Lisa: Dad, those all come from the same animal.
Homer: Heh heh heh. Ooh, yeah, right, Lisa. A wonderful, MAAAGical animal.

Ultimately, if your family likes pork, it’s going to be a good time to buy it, stock up, and save money. You won’t catch the flu!