Porktober is a busy month with a celebration of all things pork and harvest in full swing. As your fall activities may pull you away from the daily news, we gather five stories that you just can’t miss.

Porkchop assault: A dispute over a parking spot in New Orleans started with a woman plunging a well-seasoned raw pork chop on a car.  A 56-year-old woman was angered when the unknown vehicle was parked in her spot she uses typically at the apartment complex.  Although the parking space is not officially reserved for her, the woman is very protective of the spot, reports neighbors.  Police arrested her as result of the dispute.

Meanwhile, Californians are paying up for ‘millionaire’s bacon.'  For $7 a slice, diners are enjoying a thicker cut of bacon covered with sugar and cayenne pepper and slowed roast at low temperature. Several restaurants in San Fransico is taking on the latest craze and charging more for bacon, which is eight times thicker than normal bacon and cut from the center of the pork belly. Apparently, it is a big hit as indicated by Choi’s restaurant post on Instagram explaining they ran out of millionaire bacon.

Smithfield, the largest pork producer in the industry, will be joining the World Food Championships to host an ancillary Pork Loin Challenge to supplement their Kansas City Barbecue Society and International Barbeque Cookers Association-sanctioned World Barbecue Championship.  The 6th annual event, held in Orange Beach, Ala. November 8-14, is the largest competition in the food world, bringing together top chefs and home cooks from around the globe, each of whom has won a qualifying contest. Smithfield Prime Pork Loins will be distributed to up to 100 teams who have qualified for the World Barbecue Championship during an ancillary contest taking place on Thursday, November 9. All participants will have free reign to prepare their Smithfield Prime Pork Loin in any way they choose for additional cash prizes. Contestants are encouraged to use their creativity to showcase the versatility of the product and can break down the loins into specialty cuts such as chops, cubes, and strips before cooking them on a grill or smoker.

San Francisco is the first U.S. city to require certain retailers of raw meat and poultry to report the use of antibiotics.  The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the ordinance, which is slated to take effect in April 2018. The ordinance will approximately impact 120 retailers. Failing to comply could result in the city imposing penalties, including fines and/or the suspension or revocation of any permits held.

American Journal of Agricultural Economics recently released an interesting paper on how food consumption varies with household incomes in different countries.  Using previously unpublished data from the World Bank on consumption of 31 various food items in 150 countries, researchers Kenneth Clements and Jiawei Si release intriguing details about how food consumption differs in rich and developing countries. Jayson Lusk, the food economist at Purdue University, summarizes the data.

Source: Jayson Lusk

Bottomline:  Compared to more affluent consumers, poorer consumers are not only consuming a more significant share of their income on food, but they're also eating less food.