The Rural Voice, 1999-01, Page 16As demonstrations at
Queen's Park go, it was
extremely quiet and well
behaved. Police just stood around
and watched as 1,500 Ontario
pork producers and thcir
supporters came to the
Legislature December 1 to ask for
help in the face of an
unprecedented collapse of pork
prices.
There were none of the
publicity stunts that Quebec
farmers might have tried — say
like pigs blocking Queen's Park
Circle. Even the speakers were
polite, prodding the government
like good stockmen moving pigs
from one pen to another rather
than ranting and raving and
demanding instant . action.
Perhaps they knew their plight
was too desperate for even cost-
cutting governments to ignore.
Ten days later, both the
provincial and federal
governments had announced
programs to get money into their
hands as well as the hands of
cash-strapped grain and oilseed
farmers on the prairies.
All three Ontario parties in the
Ontario Legislature pledged
support for the farmers gathered
on thcir doorstep. Noble
Villeneuve, Ministry of
Agriculture, Food and Rural
Affairs promised to have money
in producers hands within weeks.
On December 10 he announced the
Ontario Whole Farm Relief Program
with $40 million to help farmers
through until the federal government
stepped in. The money will also go to
farmers in areas hit hard by 1998's
drought. Villeneuve indicated there
would be some sort of capping of the
program which might favour small
independent producers.
Later on the same day, Federal
Agriculture Minister Lyle Yanclief
finally got cabinet approval to
announce a program with $900
million in new money to be
distributed over the next two years.
That money will be spread across the
country, helping hard-hit western
farmers as well.
But as farmers stood in the
unusually-warm December sunshine
at Queen's Park, they couldn't be
sure that help was coming and that it
Voices heard!
The problems faced by Canada's hog farmers
were just too big to ignore so governments
came through
By Keith Roulston
Pork producers took their concerns to Queen's Park
in a rally December to draw attention to their plight.
would come as fast as it did.
Three young men in the front row
were the kind of young people any
farming commodity wants to attract,
but there were tears in their eyes as
they listened to Harry Stam, a
Hagarsville-area farrow -to -finish
producer, tell of the effects of the
disastrously low prices on his farm
and his family. Perhaps they realized
their own dreams of having a farm
were sinking as fast as pork prices.
"We're not talking a minor bump
in the road here," said Stam. "We're
talking about the price dropping off a
cliff."
More experienced industry people.
than the tearful young farmers were
also in shock at the current state of
affairs. In an industry used to the
peaks and valleys of price cycles, the
current state of affairs is something
even veterans have never seen
12 THE RURAL VOICE
before. The coincidence of the
the top end of the supply cycle
coming as Asia and Russia hit
economic crises drove prices to
historic lows.
Even with no inflation factored
in, today's prices are at their
lowest since 1972, Ontario Pork
says. Over the past five years the
average price per kilogram to the
farmer has been $1.55 but in
early December it had dropped to
less than $.60. That price would
return to efficient farmers only
about 60 per cent of their cost of
production.
Jack Wilkinson, president of the
Canadian Federation of
Agriculture, explained at a press
conference prior to the rally that
prices were so disastrously low
because farmers in Canada and
the U.S. had been gearing up to
supply a booming Asian market
for pork but the currency crisis in
Asian countries changed the
situation overnight. The crisis in
Russia also hit world markets.
When one third of the world stops
buying it causes problems, he
said.
"There wasn't an oversupply
(of pork) a few months ago and
(then) there was a 10 per cent
world oversupply of hogs
overnight," Wilkinson explained.
Suddenly U.S. packers were
swamped with hogs with nowhere
to go but the domestic market.
U.S. markets for Ontario hogs
disappeared. One large packing plant
in Detroit closed its doors, creating
even a larger shortage of slaughter
capacity.
The impact of the crisis on
individual farmers- was
explained by Stam, who told
how in the past three months his
family's dream of being able to look
toward retirement had become a
nightmare. "There's nothing more
humiliating as doing your job and
doing it well and losing money," he
said, estimating his losses at $15,000
a week.
And as if things weren't bad
enough for farmers on the Queen's
Park lawn that day, the next week
delivered another blow as Quality
Meat Packers in Toronto, imitating
its competitor Maple Leaf Meats'
actions of earlier in the year,