With great focus, some of it by overzealous do-gooders, the livestock sectors are making sure the health of animals, and the food they sell to the public is healthy and perceived so in all counts.

That is one reason the Canadian Pork Council (CPC) is calling on government to ensure swine health and disease prevention remain a priority under Canada’s next Agricultural Policy Framework.

Representatives of the CPC addressed the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food presenting the pork industry’s views on Canada’s next Agricultural Policy Framework.

Hans Kristensen, the Maritime representative on the CPC’s Board of Directors, told the committee disease prevention remains a focus for the pork industry and initiatives like traceability, biosecurity and disease surveillance need to be a priority in the next agricultural policy framework.

“Work conducted by the Canadian Swine Health Board since 2009 has provided the industry with significant benefits in the area of biosecurity and raised the awareness of the importance of swine health industry wide, including at a producer level,” said Kristensen. “However, as with anything, more work could be done. The pork industry and government needs to work on preparedness to be primed for the next health challenge.”

He says in the event of the next emerging disease situation the pork industry needs to have the resources and a plan to ensure the industry is prepared and has the tools to improve swine health management, non-regulatory disease responses in collaboration with government.

“Failure to manage the animal health risk compromises the welfare of our animals and of our operations. It also jeopardizes our ability to address the food security needs of our domestic and export markets,” said Kristensen. “Health of our animals, our ability to respond to challenges is a big trademark that we have worldwide. The better handle we have on that, the better food security and animal health we have, the better able we are going to be to sell these products worldwide.”

He says the Canadian pork industry remains focused on disease prevention in the areas of biosecurity coordination, communication, preparedness and surveillance and requires government investment in partnership with producers to create a national sustainable model for animal health risk management.

While on the subject and addressing the Feds, the CPC is calling for a restoration of the AgriStability program’s positive margin coverage to 85 per cent under Canada’s next Agricultural Policy Framework.

Kristensen told the committee the reduction in the AgriStability program’s positive margin coverage from 85 per cent to 70 per cent significantly reduced the program’s capacity to assist the hog industry.

“In business, as in life, risk is a reality but this is especially true in the volatile pork industry.

While risk can never be eliminated it can be managed to minimize the detrimental effect it has on us as producers and to enhance our long term viability,” he said. “However doing so requires utilizing current risk management tools and hopefully developing new ones. All business risk management programs are important but AgriStability has been the most useful program to our particular sector. But its effectiveness in managing a significant price drop substantially, with the reduction in the positive margin coverage from 85 to 70 per cent, has hurt us.”

Kristensen says at this lower level the program will provide producers a backstop to severe loss and little else.

“As an income stabilization measure, we really feel it needs to be returned to the 85 per cent level in the new framework,” he said. “At the same time, we have to make sure that this program, its accessibility and responsiveness in timelines to us gets streamlined and is able to react faster.”

Kristensen says the Canadian pork industry provides over 30,000 direct and 70,000 indirect on farm jobs and generates $13 billion worth of economic activity annually. The federal and provincial governments need to ensure we have business risk management strategies in place to protect that economic impact. •

— By Harry Siemens