| Canada Pays $50M to End Pig Glut |
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| Written by Heather McKee | |
| Tuesday, 22 April 2008 | |
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On average, your bag of groceries costs 8.9% more than it did last year, because of increasing grain, transportation and processing costs. Flour and eggs have nearly doubled in price. Mysteriously, however, bacon prices have remained steady and even declined occasionally. Proof of God? Well, no - actually there are just too many pigs in Canada right now. In fact, the Canadian government has just offered $50 million to farmers to do away with 150,000 of their pigs by this fall, in an effort to reduce the supply on the market. 25% of these pigs would be donated to food banks; the other 75% would go to pet food manufacturers. Because Canada’s dollar has risen rapidly (matching the value of the U.S. dollar now), and because grain prices have skyrocketed, farmers are paying more for inputs, and getting less per pig. So pig farmers have flooded the market with pigs, trying to squeeze out as many pennies as they can from each pig. An effective new circle virus treatment has improved pig health and also contributed to the increase in the supply. Canada and the U.S. provide over ½ the world’s exports of pork. The globalized food market that is putting the hurt on Canadian pork farmers has provided us with cheap bacon – for now. Via NPR |
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