April 21, 2008 (LPAC)--On April 14, amidst reports of the dire world food shortage situation, the government of Canada began its new "Cull Breeding Swine Program," claiming that farmers are facing low prices for their hogs, because there are too many being produced. The Swine Cull will pay farmers C$225 per head to kill off their breeding stock, and commit to an "empty barn" for three years. In terms of "markets"-logic, the C$50 million program is aiming to shrink the Canadian adult breeding sow numbers by 10%, which then is supposed to drive up the price of pork. This kind of WTO-think is a ruse, covering for the breakdown in the food chain.

The reality is that (family-scale) farmers in both the U.S. and Canada are losing US$50 a head because of underpayment by the cartel processors, relative to the high feed costs--mostly corn, fuel and other costs to produce the livestock. Meantime, the factory-farms run by the transnationals, such as Smithfield--producing over 20% of all U.S. hogs--continue.

There are reports that desperate farmers in Manitoba are gassing piglets to death, because they can't afford to feed and sell them. "It really goes against everything that a producer stands for," said Karl Kynock, Chairman of the Manitoba Pork Council. "His mind-set for his whole life has been to raise food to supply people around the world...and to care for animals in the best way possible."

This kind of destruction of food capacity was introduced as a standard part of the 1980s/90s recommended farm policies in the USA, Canada, the EU and elsewhere, under the excuse of 'bringing markets into balance' and also for not 'overusing resources.' The EU implemented quotas for milk and other goods, taxing farmers if they "overproduced." The U.S. implemented a sweeping dairy herd "buy-out," to drive out family-size dairy operations.