The Rural Voice, 2019-06, Page 74 The fast-moving mind of a toddler
has resulted in more than a few
YouTube clips being played in our
house. There is a healthy dose of Paw
Patrol and it appears my child may
enjoy Formula 1 highlight packs. But
every once and awhile we fit in some
David Attenborough. His calming
voice narrates popular nature
programs like Planet Earth and
Frozen Planet and, although his stoic
English demeanour is contrarian to
the ideal sportscaster, he is essentially
a British version of a “nature
sportscaster”. An English Bob Cole
of the natural world whose fame has
been made by narrating highlight
pack after highlight pack of Mother
Nature at her finest. Or at her worst if
you happen to be a member of a
species that finds itself at the bottom
of a food chain.
If a farmer allows themselves,
there is some gallows humour to be
found in identifying with the same
prey Mr. Attenborough so calmly
narrates the demise of. While there is
the odd, poor decision that may push
us to ruin, more often than not it is
something beyond our control that
hastens our end. Take the recent clip
my son and I watched covering the
migration of the Sockeye Salmon. If
you were to watch it with no great
knowledge of salmon migration, it
seems that the majority of fish
swimming up the Fraser get snapped
up by a grizzly. Based on the videos
it seems the grizzly has the ultimate
power and, right now, it feels like
there are a lot of grizzlies upstream in
our proverbial river.
The global system of trade that
powers the Canadian hog industry is
a hot mess. President Donald Trump
seems content to blow up decades of
progress brought on by liberalized
trade because he lacks the aptitude
required to grasp the complexities of
geopolitics and monetary policy.
China has no intention of capitulating
as their autocratic regime can
suppress discontent, and they want to
assert themselves as equal to the
Americans when it comes to global
heft. In reality, Canada is caught in
the crossfire. Not only were we
subject to costly steel and aluminum
tariffs from the USA, we’ve also
drawn the ire of the Chinese for
detaining Meng Wanzhou at the
request of the Americans. It’s hard to
say what the long-term impact will be
but, for now, we already know
Canadian canola has lost its most
important export market with a
couple hog plants losing market
access as well.
At the same time, weather patterns
have given us two challenges in short
succession. Animal performance is
down across the province because our
livestock industries continue to deal
with mycotoxin issues present from
the 2018 Ontario corn crop. On top of
that, Spring 2019 has been wet and
cold, and hardly a wheel has turned
as producers are challenged to get
manure out and corn planted before
they will no longer be able to
capitalize on the maximum potential
of their fields. If our crop producers
struggle it will become increasingly
difficult to get quality feed and it’s
possible high-quality feed will be
extremely expensive before year’s
end.
The biggest bear of all is the
continued spread of African Swine
Fever (ASF) throughout southeast
Asia. In our globally connected world
the task of keeping out reportable
Foreign Animal Diseases (FAD) like
ASF is incredibly difficult. An ASF
break in Canada would be devastating
as borders would slam shut, just as
they did for Canadian beef in 2003.
The Canadian hog industry exports
more than 70 per cent of our product
and it is neigh impossible for us to eat
the amount of stockpiled pork that
would result from border closures. If
an outbreak occurred, it is possible
nothing but a massive government
support package would save the
producers who want to remain in the
industry.
We can be certain that an
individual salmon is never excited
about traversing the grizzly infested
river. Yet, the school knows that if it
is to grow and prosper they all must
try to cross in hopes that most will
prevail. There will be years when
population numbers dip and years
when numbers grow. There is
bubbling anxiety stemming from the
ability to know when the ebbs and
flows of survival may come. While
there is anxiety in the anticipation of
lean times, there is a comfort in the
inability of one to know when their
time may come. A blend of faith,
luck, and good decisions lend their
hand to higher chances of survival
and barring extinction, there are
always some that make it out the
other side of a crisis.
Right now, it is scary to be a
pig farmer in Ontario. There are
many threats that seem to be on
the doorstep that could destroy
our livelihoods. But just as
the salmon, we must keep
swimming.◊
– Submitted by Stewart Skinner
Perth, Huron,
Grey and Bruce
Craig Hulshof, President
craig.hulshof@gmail.com / 519-301-8483
* The Rural Voice is provided to
Perth County Pork Producers by the PCPPA
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Canada caught in crossfire of international politics
70 The Rural Voice
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