Author (#31): May 2009 Archives

It was great to see Governor General Michaelle Jean eating a piece of seal heart this week.

I’m not a big fan of raw heart from any source – stuff it and roast it, and that’s a different story. But I gave her top marks for her support of the Canadian sealing industry.

Of course, her very public demonstration of support drew criticism from all the pet owners around the world. “How could she?” But, there she was, side by side with the Inuit people, supporting the culture and customs of these people who have relied on this form of ‘animal agriculture’ for centuries as both a source of food and income.

I wasn’t sure about Ms. Jean when she was first appointed to the GG position. I didn’t know anything about her. “I thought who is this intellectual who is married to that old man? This should be good!”  (Of course her husband, Jean-Daniel Lafond, is just a little older than me.) But, over the last few years she has demonstrated that she is truly a down to earth person, who has served the country well in this vice-regal role.

While I believe strongly in proper care and treatment of animals, and in environmental protection, I am continually alarmed by these voracious do-gooder critics who can’t get their head around the concept of humane slaughter and other proper and sustainable agriculture production practices.

Thank God, Her Excellency, hasn’t followed the footsteps of Prince Charles (Mr. Organic) who continues to talk about things he doesn’t understand.

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It was great to see Governor General Michaelle Jean eating a piece of seal heart this week.

I’m not a big fan of raw heart from any source – stuff it and roast it, and that’s a different story. But I gave her top marks for her support of the Canadian sealing industry.

Of course, her very public demonstration of support drew criticism from all the pet owners around the world. “How could she?” But, there she was, side by side with the Inuit people, supporting the culture and customs of these people who have relied on this form of ‘animal agriculture’ for centuries as both a source of food and income.

I wasn’t sure about Ms. Jean when she was first appointed to the GG position. I didn’t know anything about her. “I thought who is this intellectual who is married to that old man? This should be good!”  (Of course her husband, Jean-Daniel Lafond, is just a little older than me.) But, over the last few years she has demonstrated that she is truly a down to earth person, who has served the country well in this vice-regal role.

While I believe strongly in proper care and treatment of animals, and in environmental protection, I am continually alarmed by these voracious do-gooder critics who can’t get their head around the concept of humane slaughter and other proper and sustainable agriculture production practices.

Thank God, Her Excellency, hasn’t followed the footsteps of Prince Charles (Mr. Organic) who continues to talk about things he doesn’t understand.

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I know it is a tough spot, but I was pleased to see Alberta hog producer Arnold Van Ginkel go public this week with his side of how the H1N1 virus has shut down his operation at Rocky Mountain House.

Even though he and his family have personally done nothing wrong, I think it is important that the public see the real face of the industry – a young hard working couple, with six children – who were minding their own business when the disease found their farm. (Unfortunately the only other Canadian ‘hog farmer’ the public got to know by name is serving consecutive life sentences in a maximum security BC jail).

According to a story in the Calgary and Edmonton papers (see online at: http://www.calgaryherald.com) Van Ginkel says the only way out now is to cull his entire 2200 head herd, pay him compensation and let him start over. With his farm under quarantine, with every day that goes by he has market hogs getting fatter, with no place to go, and about 100 new piglets being born into the operation every week.

Even though market hogs are healthy, who wants them? Thanks to media hype, common sense over the potential health risk of this virus has long since disappeared.

It was interesting to note in the Van Ginkel story that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency abandoned him. What is that about? They moved in to quarantine his farm after the outbreak was first reported, but since then they won’t talk to him? They wont return his phone calls? Van Ginkel had to hire a lawyer to make contact with CFIA?

This is their (CFIA) business for God’s sake. You’d think they would have set up a tent at his gate to be available to manage “the crisis.”

The Van Ginkel family, supported by the Alberta Pork Producers, have done a courageous thing. I hope this issue soon passes and they can move on with their lives without being a truly unfortunate casualty of the Swine Flu.

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I spent part of the past week with some highly influential people in the Canadian beef industry. The first important group was six southeastern B.C. ranchers, and the second group was guys who work for or have some links  to an organization called the Canadian Cattleman’s Association (I had to shower after that session! I’m kidding they are a good bunch of fellas too).

But I had coffee last week to discuss beef production issues with Joe Masi, Gus Fiorentino, Tony Pighin, Lonny Jones, and brothers Collin and Don Morrison who all ranch in the East Kootenay region of B.C.

So I talk with these guys for a couple hours about some local challenges and then a few days later I sit down in the evening to watch the national TV news and see Canadian hog producers rallying to assure the world that Canadian pork is safe to eat. 

The common thread between the beef guys at Fort Steele and the hog producers dishing up pulled pork sandwiches on Parliament Hill is that they are just a bunch of farmers who want to do what they know and love and that’s produce food. Hopefully somewhere along the line they make a dollar or at least break even, but there is no hidden agenda, no subversive activity, no terrorist objectives. They just want to be allowed to do their thing.

And yet aside from the basic challenge of trying to be efficient livestock producers in a volatile and unpredictable market, they also have to defend what they do against the pressures of media hype, public ignorance, and misguided, incorrect, and often malicious perceptions.

I’m just an observer, but I listen to the nonsense that goes on, whether it be over a local issue or an international frenzy over a non-existent human health threat, and it makes me weary. My immediate reaction is ‘why bother, give it up, quit now, save yourself the frustration, let the bastards starve’….(not me, just the collective masses who are peeing their pants over non-existent issues).

But here is an agriculture industry, that for the most part, goes about a activity which I’m guessing must be among the top five priorities on God’s to-do list, and yet it is continually battered and criticized and put on the defensive against issues which have no basis in science or fact.

How many millions of people are there in the world starving to death who would give anything to have a pound of beef or pork or a bushel of wheat to keep their kids alive today, and yet we have the well-educated, well-clothed, well-sheltered, affluent masses in the developed world fretting they may get a runny nose if they eat a slice of bacon. (Even if that risk was true, so what?)

If I was in charge I’d say we feed those who really appreciate the food and let the rest experience what a hungry belly really feels like, and that hopefully might trigger a pandemic of common sense.

Please vote for me as King of The World.

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