Why the Working Man Stopped Eating Pork
A Portland market expert explains how wartime economics and local infrastructure projects transformed the regional meat market.
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Mr. McAlister explains that the recent slump in the hog market was not due to overproduction, but to a combination of circumstances. When the European war drove wheat prices to a dollar a bushel, farmers panicked and dumped thin, under-developed hogs into the market, driving down prices. Furthermore, the local appetite for pork is directly tied to the working man's pocketbook. When streets were being paved, irrigation canals built, and railroads constructed, the working man was eating high on the hog. Now that development work has stalled, consumption has dropped. However, McAlister predicts prices will climb as factories ramp up to supply the war, ultimately increasing employment and the demand for pork.
“The banker, the lawyer, and the merchant are not the big pork consumers. It is the working man who stows away the chops and makes inroads on the bacon and the ‘ham and.’ Unfortunately the workingman’s appetite is regulated by his pocketbook.”
This 1914 report highlights the direct link between infrastructure development—then, irrigation and rail—and local food security. Today, Kennewick's struggle with economic diversification mirrors this anxiety, where reliance on specific agricultural and industrial sectors leaves the working class vulnerable to global market volatility.
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