Canadian U.S. Pork Sector Collaboration Called for In Communicating with Consumers and Governments

The General Manager of Manitoba Pork suggests representative of the Canadian and U.S. pork sectors need to be working together when it comes to communicating with governments and with consumers.

An article circulated through Manitoba newspapers and posted to Manitoba Pork’s website discusses the importance of efforts to strengthen international relations among those involved in farming and the groups that represent them.

Cam Dahl, the General Manager of Manitoba Pork, suggests relationships matter and the issues faced by producers are the same whether they’re raising pigs in Minnesota and Iowa or in Manitoba.

I think a starting point is that integration of the market and how important it is to farmers on both sides of the border and that animals and product and feed and supplements and medicine, all of those kinds of things that are so important to all of us, that they flow freely across the Canada-U.S. border. There are pressures on that and so we need to be approaching our governments to make sure that that integration of our markets is preserved.

That’s a starting point. Also, we need to chat about some of those public trust issues, to talk about our improving environmental impact, animal care, to talk about the impact of some of the pressures on our industry, like Proposition 12 in California. Again, we really do have a common approach or a common view on many of these issues and can be delivering the same messages and I think its really important to do so.

Dahl believes that collaboration needs to start with getting to know the people on both sides of the border and developing a common approach to activist pressure on agriculture and a common message to consumers. He says working together to tackle problems common to farmers on both sides of the border is basic common sense.