Why your BLT will be more expensive this summer

That gorgeous BLT you’ve been craving? And the side of bacon that you ordered with your cheese omelet? Both are already more expensive than they were one month ago. You can blame the PED virus – porcine epidemic diarrhea – which is so fast-spreading (it doesn’t affect humans, by the way, only piglets) that it has already killed nearly 5 million piglets nationwide. Local butchers are already feeling the sting of increased prices.

“It’s starting to affect prices now,” says Stuart Aldridge, the general manager of the Broadway Butcher Shop (3828 Broadway). “My bulk sausage costs have already increased 50 cents a pound. They’re projecting this is going to last well into the summer.”

According to this morning’s report by Harvest Public Media: “The uncertainty in supply triggered the recent wild speculation in the hog market and is causing the record-high prices.”

Alex Pope, owner of the Local Pig (2618 Guinotte), isn’t concerned about prices spiking this year: “We’re off the grid in terms of industrial pork production. We buy from small farms within 50 miles from here. Most pork prices are set by major companies that control the supply. We don’t have any of that.”