The Alberta government will put up $300,000 to process ground pork from animals slaughtered through the new federal cull breeding swine program, for use by the province’s food banks.
The provincial funding, announced Wednesday, is meant to help pay to process the sow carcasses from the cull program into usable meat with the Alberta Food Bank Network Association funding the remainder.
“This announcement is welcome news, as there is now the opportunity to have the pork products from culled animals be donated to Albertans in need, allowing some good to come out of the devastating crisis occurring in the hog industry,” Alberta Pork policy and communications director Jodi Hesse said in the province’s press release.
Read Also
U.S. livestock: Cattle futures up, hogs mixed
Live and feeder cattle futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Tuesday recovered their losses from Monday. However, lean hog…
Alberta Pork will oversee the donation program, working with Sunterra Meats, Lucerne Foods and the Western Hog Exchange to process and transport the meat, the province said.
The province expected the funding could help make about 600,000 pounds of ground pork available to Albertans in need. The pork industry expects up to 4,000 sows to be shipped under the federal cull program.
“Food banks in Alberta feed more than 40,000 people every month, so an influx of processed pork will be an extremely valuable commodity for those we serve,” said Richard Le Sueur of the food bank network in the province’s release.
It’s not yet known what the food bank network’s contribution will be, but Le Sueur said Thursday that the group can better estimate the level of funding needed when it has a better idea of how many Alberta animals will be culled through the federal program, a figure that’s likely to be known within a week or two.
If the number of available Alberta culls turns out to be close to the maximum estimated, the food banks may have to fundraise or call for more in-kind contributions to process and ship all the available pork for food banks’ use, he said.
The $50 million federal cull program, which has been underway since April 14, is meant to help the hog industry restructure by helping cut Canada’s swine breeding herd (sows, boars and pregnant gilts) by about 10 per cent.
Qualifying producers, subject to application approval, will get $225 per breeding swine culled after April 14, and will get reimbursement for costs of slaughter and carcass disposal.
A payment of $225 per breeding swine less the selling price will be available for producers who sold animals from Nov. 1, 2007 until April 13 this year and can produce receipts and supporting documents.
The Manitoba and Saskatchewan governments recently announced similar pledges to help fund processing of sows culled under the federal program. Saskatchewan will put up $440,000, while Manitoba will provide $500,000.
