Officials with East-Man Feeds report support for an online petition calling on the federal government to recognize the extreme crisis faced by the Canadian Pork industry is gaining momentum.
A combination of factors including increased feed costs due to competition from subsidized ethanol production, the rising value of the Canadian dollar, reduced access to U.S. packing plants due to Mandatory U.S. Country of Origin Labelling, reduced access to credit due to the global economic crisis and most recently the misnaming of the H1N1 flu has led to devastating losses within the Canadian pork industry.
An on-line petition, addressed to federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz, calls for a federally sponsored emergency funding initiative to bridge the financial gap.
East-Man Feeds special analyst Kelly Godlien estimates the petition is attracting about 200 signatures per day.
Producers are calling for any and every help that they can get their hands on.
There are obviously politics and economics that are factors in there.
Help always has to come in the form of cautionary due to trade limitations and WTO regulations but really many pork producers have reached the end of their line.
They’ve run out of equity, they’ve run out of credit, the cash is going outside of their operations faster than it could possibly come back in.
The days of tying knots at the end of their ropes is almost done.
We need help and support from our federal and provincial governments to step up to the plate and make themselves known as supporters of great industries inside of our country and industries that don’t just feed ourselves, we feed the world.
That’s a very important industry as far as any Canadian and any person who is part of the food supply chain globally should be able to appreciate.
Anyone interested in viewing or signing the petition should visit petitiononline.com.
Source: Farmscape.Ca
