This story is hard to stomach, literally:
In what is being called an unprecedented move, the federal government will pay Canadian pork producers $50 million to kill off 150,000 of their pigs by the fall as the industry teeters on the brink of economic collapse.
The animals are being destroyed at slaughter plants and on pig farms in a bid to cull the swine breeding herd by 10 per cent.
Most of the meat is to be used for pet food or otherwise disposed of, but up to 25 per cent of it will be made available to Canadian food banks.
“The value that the market is providing to hog farmers for their breeding animals has fallen to virtually nothing,” said Martin Rice, executive director of the Canadian Pork Council on Monday.
We have food riots around the world as the price for rice and wheat and soy skyrockets and Canada is going to slaughter animals and throw away the majority of the meat to help their domestic pork market?
Needless to say, the excess pork meat can’t be sent to Egypt or any other muslim nation. But c’mon, there’s got to be a better solution than this. How about Haiti?
As people go more and more vegetarian for ethical and economic reasons, we will see more and more stories of livestock being slaughtered for the sake of market dynamics.
