Four (or Five!) Reasons Why

….We Love Pigs

1. Bacon. Is there any other meat that is as universally loved? You can put bacon on pretty much anything, and people will welcome its addition with open arms. In fact, you could run with the slogan: “Bacon; it’s not just for breakfast”. And bacon is one meat that has the ability to break the resistance of most die-hard vegetarians.

2. Ribs. I could eat ribs any time, any day with pretty much any type of sauce. Any meat that you can eat without using utensils can only be a good thing. Of course, I’m going to sniff my nose at beef ribs, but porks ribs rule the day. In fact, I’m starting to salivate just thinking about a nice rack of pork ribs.

3. Pork chops. For some reason, every time I think of pork chops, I think of Peter Brady saying “Pork chops and apple sauce” - probably due to far too much sit-com watching as a kid. Yup, pork chops with apple sauce are pretty ideal comfort food.

4. Ham. Probably one of the best things to slap between two pieces of bread. Give me a ham and cheese (preferably Edam or Havarti) any day of the week.

More: For information on how to BBQ pig necks, check out Chomposaurus. A discussion about pigs and pork couldn’t be complete without two contributions from Homer Simpson:

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, magical animal.

Technorati Tags: Bacon, Homer Simpson, Pigs

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…SPAM Is All The Rage

1. Despite all the teasing, taunting and endless jokes, SPAM is flying off the shelves. Much of its recent popularity may have something to do with American families trying to stretch already stretched budgets, or the fact that every other food group has seen a massive surge in prices, the meat that nobody likes is back on dinner plates and dining room tables. While the average price of a 12-ounce can of SPAM has risen in price by 7% (17 cents to $2.62) over the past year, it’s still pretty cheap. The meat’s renaissance helped boost Hormel Food Corporation’s, the manufacturer of SPAM, profits up 14% in the second quarter, on a 10.6% rise in sales. This, from a canned meat company!

2. While not the sexiest business, Hormel’s share price has held up pretty well in the face of turbulent financial circumstances. Its long-term performance has been fairly impressive, showing steady growth over the past ten years, rising from about $15 in 1998 to just over $38, after hitting a recent high of $42.77. If that doesn’t sound impressive, consider that it has crushed the performance of the Dow Jones, NASDAQ and S&P 500 indexes. Warren Buffett would be proud!

3. SPAM was a backbone for Monty Python’s greasy spoon cafe sketch, where the mostly everything on the menu consists of the mystery meat. As if this wasn’t funny enough, Eric Idle came along and created SPAMALOT, a musical combining the quest for the Holy Grail (Monty Python and the Holy Grail) and SPAM. Find me a meat…nay, any food…that has had a musical created around it. The original Broadway production received 14 Tony Award nominations, more than any other show during the 2004-2005 season, winning three, including Best Musical.

4. Meat in a can. How different can it get? Apparently, lots different. For the Broadway debut of SPAMALOT, Hormel released a collector’s edition SPAM (who knew SPAM could be a collector’s item), SPAM Golden Honey Grail, followed by the “Stinky French Garlic” edition for the London launch. They also recently launched SPAM Singles - in both Classic and Turkey Lite - just in case you’re on the move and had a hankering.

If you’re looking for some cool gifts, check out the SPAM Store.

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…Food Aid Is Facing The Perfect Storm

1. The perfect economic storm seems to be in full swing. The U.S. housing market is in the tank, oil prices are soaring, and the credit crisis is paralyzing the banking world. While economists debate whether the U.S. is in the midst of a recession, people from all walks of life are finding it harder to make ends meet. Factor in surging food and gas prices and you will find more people in need of food aid.

2. The number of people in need is staggering. USA Today points out that government data for 2006 (the latest available) shows 10.9% of households were food insecure, “a bureaucratic term meaning they did not have enough food for a healthy lifestyle at some point in the year.” That’s 35.5 million people! Of these, 22.9 million are adults (10.4% of all adults) and 12.6 million are children (17.2% of all children). At 21.8% and 19.5%, Black and Hispanic households, respectively, experience the highest rates of food insecurity.

3. Demand for food aid is on the rise. According to the U.S. Department of Agricultural, 26 million people participate in the food stamps program, with working class families accounting for approximately 41% of those in 2006, up from 30% tens years earlier. Second harvest, the largest network of food banks in the U.S., says demand is up an average of 15% to 20% from a year ago.

4. Donations are down. In addition to reduced personal and corporate sponsorship, federal government donations have been on the decline (though should show signs of recovery now that the Farm Bill has been passed by the House of Representatives).

5. Behind the strength of food and commodity prices, farmers are selling crops on the open market as opposed to government, price-supported programs. This creates additional pressure on food banks as those that purchase food to supplement donations are facing much higher costs. In a recent survey of Second Harvest food banks, over 80% reported that they could not meet demand without trimming operations or reducing the amount of food given out.

If you are interested in making a donation, please visit Second Harvest (for U.S. donations) and The Daily Bread Food Bank (Canada). Also, please feel free to post other sites in the comments.

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…Wine, It’s All In Your Head

1. At the end of the day, you like what you like. While there are innumerable magazines, countless experts and friends who fancy themselves oenophiles, once you pull out the cork only you can be the real judge of whether a wine is any good. While ratings and price are usually closely connected and often are important to trained wine drinkers/collectors, personal taste should be the ultimate factor in choosing what to drink.

2. Wine drinking, or more importantly “tasting”, is like any skill. Training changes your relative perception of what is good. In other words, you like what you know…or don’t know. In his book, “The Wine Trials,” Robin Goldstein shows that novice wine drinkers have significantly different, and cheaper, tastes than wine experts (those who have had some sort of training or professional experience). This explains why, in the study of mostly novice wine drinkers, a $10 bottle of sparkling wine from Washington state outscored a $150 bottle of Dom Pérignon, while Two-Buck Chuck topped a $55 bottle of Napa Valley cabernet.

3. Unfortunately, personal taste is often swayed by emotion. And we can blame marketing for bringing emotion into the fold. Case in point - critter labels. What’s a critter label? Have you ever seen a wine bottle with a cat, dog, hippo or penguin? Now you know. An ACNielson survey conducted in 2006 showed that 18% of all wine bottles had an animal on them and accounted for over $600 million in sales in the U.S. I can’t even imagine how those numbers have changed over the last two years. Another study conducted in New York showed that a critter label can provide a 20% in sales versus a non-critter wine, and they are particularly popular among women shoppers.

4. An experiment by the California Institute of Technology and the Stanford Business School demonstrated that the more expensive consumers think a wine is, the more pleasure they take in drinking it. As the New York Times notes, “The fact is, the correlation between price and quality is so powerful that it affects not just our perception of wine but of all consumer goods.”

5. While scoring has helped us develop a sense of relative taste (”Look, honey. Parker scored this a 91!”), Eric Asimov of the New York Times points out that wine, or the enjoyment of it, is contextual - your enjoyment depends on where you are and who you are with. Asimov notes, “The proverbial little red wine, so delicious in a Tuscan village with your sweetie, never tastes the same back home in New Jersey. Meanwhile, the big California cabernet, which you enjoyed so much with your work buddies at a steakhouse, ties tucked between buttons, doesn’t have that triumphant lift with a bowl of spaghetti.”

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…You Should Take Your Lunch To Work

1. Taking your lunch to work can save you money. Assuming that there are about 250 working days in a year and the average lunch costs between $5 (on the low end) and $10 (on the higher-side), midday meals can account for between $1,250 and 2,500 per year! You can imagine that this would be even higher if you throw in a few long lunches and even more if you toss in the occasional beer or glass of wine. If you packed a lunch, even just two or three times a week, you would save yourself a few bucks a day. Added up over the year and you’ve put a few hundred dollars back into your pocket.

2. When you decide and have control what goes in your lunch, not only will you eat healthier, but you’ll eat better. The quality of ingredients, particularly at fast food restaurants, is often marginal at best. And you never really know what goes into what you eat. Even when you think you’re being healthy, like buying a Subway Tuna Sub, a quick look at the nutritional value would shock you. That tuna sub just mentioned - 1,060 calories for a 12-inch! That doesn’t include the Coke you probably get with it.

3. Assuming you use containers that can be washed and resealed, you will reduce waste. So you can feel good about what you put in your stomach and what you leave out of the trash bin.

4. While there is no guarantee that it will make you day any shorter, spending the time that you would normally take out to lunch being more productive in the office may mean that you can justify leaving work early. Or at least on time. You can also use the opportunity to take that midday break in an environment of your choosing without having to waste time lining up for lunch. Get out on a nice day and sit in the sun!

5. Lunch boxes are cool. Go retro - dig up an old tin box from your basement or a local second hand shop. Or go modern - pick up a very cool Bento-style laptop lunch box from Obentec. Or go very traditional - get a furoshiki and learn how to wrap just about anything with a piece of cloth.

More: My Money Blog has some tips on taking lunch to work entitled Frugal Brown Bag Lunch Ideas + Cost Breakdown: Sandwiches Edition.

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