Pork farmers in Canada are struggling to make ends meet as feed prices soar due to the diversion of grains into the biofuel industry. Between low pork prices and the high Canadian dollar, the pork industry is on the brink of bankruptcy. In steps Ottawa, with a plan to pay a total of $50,000,000 to farmers in exchange for culling approximately 10% of the herd.

Farmers who participate in the cull will get $225 per pig killed, but they must empty at least one barn completely in order to qualify for the subsidy and must not use that barn to raise pork for at least three years to come. A percentage of the meat from the cull will be donated to food banks across the country, but a majority of it will be used to make such products as dog food.

Although the pork industry welcomes the government assistance and food banks are happy to be getting whatever meat comes their way, it seems an awful shame for good meat to be going into animal food when so many people in the world are starving at the moment. In Haiti, for example, the rising cost of rice in particular has resulted in people actually eating mud cakes.

Some farmers are hoping they can ride out the current crisis, while others are rushing to get their applications in & be accepted for the first tranche of the cull. Either way, they are heartbroken to be at the point where they have to make such a choice. Families have built up their farms over several generations, but at this point they simply can’t afford to feed their stock. One farmer reports he earned the same in the 1970’s for his pork as he is paid today.

Sources:

“Biofuel Bind” (Bob MacDonald, CBC Quirks & Quarks)
“Biofuels not necessarily all that green” (David Suzuki Foundation)
“Biofuels: The Five Myths of the Agro-fuels Transition” (Eric Holt-Giménez, GlobalResearch.ca)
“Cull Breeding Swine Program” (Canadian Pork Council)
“Federal Cull Breeding Swine Program Begins Today” (ThePigSite News Desk)
“Haiti’s rising food prices drive poor to eat mud” (Tom Leonard, Telegraph.co.uk)
“India rice export prices up again” (Ethirajan Anbarasan, BBC News)
“Ottawa to pay pork farmers $50M to kill pigs” (Canadian Press)

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