The Bureau of Prisons, which eliminated pork from the menu at U.S. prisons, “put pork roast back on the prison bill of fare,” says the Washington Post. The decision followed a week of controversy and a letter from Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee and whose state is the top hog producer. Grassley said the pork industry would suffer from the loss of sales to federal penitentiaries. The no-pork decision took effect Oct. 1, the start of the fiscal year. The Post noted it was criticized by hog farmers and “was praised by the chicken and beef industries, natural competitors to pork.”
A spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons could not provide an explanation for the change in purchase plans. Previously, he said pork scored low in surveys of food preferences among inmates and the meat prices were a factor. Said the Post, “In the last two years, the menu had dropped from bacon, pork chops and sausages to just one dish: Pork roast, the entree now back on federal prison dining halls.”