Bacon
Bacon has seen a surge in popularity over the last few years, to the point where its fans declare themselves to be part of a Bacon Nation. Yet this breakfast meat faces issues from the beginning of production to the end. The industrial hog industry is under fire for animal welfare infractions, inadequate control of disease, waste, and smell, unsafe slaughterhouse practices, high energy use and an end product with questionable health benefits.
Bacon Bio
- Type: Cured Meat
- Country of Origin: British Isles
- Energy Use Factor: Medium to High
- Source Location: Iowa – other Mid-West, North Carolina, Europe & Asia
Sustainability Issues
- High-energy use for temperature control of sow buildings
- Increased use of corn feed & other inputs for bio-fuels.
- Waste removal, odor control, & disease control.
- Animal welfare concerns: sow stalls & slaughterhouse practices.
Where did Phil’s Bacon actually come from?
Pork is a huge product in the United States with North Carolina in the lead for the largest farrow-to-finish facilities. We filmed our farrow-to-finish facility in Carroll, IA, then took it to a slaughterhouse in Omaha, NE and finally to a nearby Tyson processing plant also in Omaha. Café Hon gets their Applewood smoked bacon from the national food supply company Sysco. Although we could not pinpoint exactly where their Sysco bacon came from, it may very well have been the Sysco-affiliate North Country Smokehouse, who in turn gets their meat from a pig farm near the mouth of the St Lawrence Seaway.
We filmed the farrow-to-finish sow farm at Elite Pork Partnership in Carroll, IA. Our slaughterhouse footage was filmed at a close by Tyson Fresh Meats facility, of which we were only able to find an approximate mapping location. Lastly, we followed the meat to a Tyson processing plant in Omaha, NE where the pork bellies are made into bacon.
View Bacon Filming Locations in a larger map
Café Hon gets their Applewood smoked bacon from Sysco, a large national food supply company. We couldn’t track down the exact source of Café Hon’s bacon, but North Country Smokehouse in Claremont, NH, is one of Sysco’s providers of premium breakfast meats. North Country gets their pigs from a family farm at the mouth of the St Lawrence Seaway.
View Bacon Cafe Hon Source Locations in a larger map
Image Source: FAO
