"Because you know you how men hate bacon....."

(That subject line is from Matthew Archbold at Creative Minority Report.)

 The nation’s pork producers are in an uproar after the federal government abruptly removed bacon, pork chops, pork links, ham and all other pig products from the national menu for 206,000 federal inmates.
The ban started with the new fiscal year last week.
The Bureau of Prisons, which is responsible for running 122 federal penitentiaries and feeding their inmates three meals a day, said the decision was based on a survey of prisoners’ food preferences:
They just don’t like the taste of pork.
“Why keep pushing food that people don’t want to eat?” asked Edmond Ross, a spokesman for the prison bureau. “Pork has been the lowest-rated food by inmates for several years,” It also apparently got more expensive for the government to buy, although he did not provide specifics.
The National Pork Producers Council isn’t buying it. “I find it hard to believe that a survey would have found a majority of any population saying, ‘No thanks, I don’t want any bacon,'” said Dave Warner, a spokesman for the Washington-based trade association, which represents the nation’s hog farmers.....
“We’re going to find out how this came about and go from there,” Warner said. “We wouldn’t rule out any options to resolve this.” He said the association “is still formulating our strategy” to reverse the prison decision, which the industry first learned about Monday when the Fort Worth Star-Telegram called for comment......

“People are more health conscious these days,” he said. “Some people choose to be vegetarian or vegan. That’s their preference.” As of last week, the prison menu had added an “economically viable” turkey bacon substitute. Incarcerated pork lovers still have an option: The prison commissary, a convenience store that sells packaged pork rinds and precooked bacon. But they have to pay.
Observant Muslims and Jews are forbidden to eat pork, and the prison system has long made accommodations for them by providing alternatives to pork and halal and kosher foods. Ross declined to say whether there has been an increase in Muslim or Jewish inmates in recent years and whether that may have factored into the survey responses.

I don't want to think the federal government is being dishonest about the motives for this ruling, but as the cheapest person you know, I am very aware of what a frugal choice pork is, so I am, as a young friend of mine would say, "spectacle."
From Archbold -

The Obama administration which is forcing the Little Sisters of the Poor to provide abortifacient coverage has now banned all pork from the menus of federal prisons, a move which Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is cheering, according to CNS News.
Now, to be clear, the administration is reportedly claiming this isn't kowtowing to pressure because Muslims don't eat pork. They're saying inmates just don't like pork. Yeah, because you know you how men hate bacon.....
How ironic is this that the president who attacks the religious freedom of Christians at every turn is getting adulation from CAIR for accommodating their religion? So freedom of religion isn't an important enough principle to allow Christians not be forced to participate in same sex marriages. And freedom of religion isn't important enough to allow nuns not to be forced to provide abortifacient coverage. But pork is banned from prisons.