The Indiana Bacon Festival was held in Delphi this past weekend. Founded in 2014, the festival celebrates the community’s bacon background with support from Indiana Packers Corporation, makers of Indiana Kitchen products.
Unfortunately, an activist group sent in a rolling billboard display suggesting that bacon causes cancer, raising the question: is bacon safe to eat?
“Yeah, bacon’s safe to eat,” says Josh Trenary, Executive Director of Indiana Pork, the organization representing the 2,200 pork farmers across the state. “The process they use to create bacon, whatever products they use in that are only allowed to be able to be used in an amount that’s safe for humans. That’s a basic food safety tenet that gets used in food production.”
The billboard and several media articles leading up to the festival was the work of a group called the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. They run a campaign called “meat is the new tobacco,” relying on a report from the World Health Organization that classifies processed meat as a Group 1 carcinogen—the same classification given to tobacco.
What they fail to mention, though, is that sunlight, wine, coffee, aloe vera, and shift work are also on that list, as well as all but one chemical used to make yoga pants. Yes—yoga pants.
Trenary says there is a larger conversation to be had about pork and processing. Pork is a valuable, nutrient-dense food that benefits everyone, especially children.
“Many pork products can be considered nutrient-dense food,” Trenary said. “When I think about nutrient-dense foods, I think ones that are providing three or more nutrients—protein, vitamins, minerals. Anything that you’re doing to process a nutrient-dense food to improve safety, or improve shelf life, or improve nutrient availability, those are laudable goals in the food industry.”
Trenary points out that the process to provide more shelf life allows their product to reach more people in need who are in food deserts around the country.
That larger conversation also needs to be had with legislators, especially as the MAHA movement continues. We’ll have more from Trenary later in the week on Hoosier Ag Today.
