Dr. John Carr, a world livestock consultant, veterinarian, and lecturer, living in Brisbane, Australia, said with African Swine Fever and COVID-19 restrictions, Canada continues to feed the world with pork.
“My attitude is I still breed the sows this week because I don’t know what’s going to happen in a year,” said Dr. Carr. “If the prices are bad this week and you decide not to breed the sows because you think, well, I’m just losing money, in a year you’ll kick yourself because you have no pigs.”In one year, he said this planet needs 20 odd kilos of pork per head of capita, per year. So, simple math, seven billion people need 140 billion kilos of pork. Another way of looking at it is that each pig provides food for three people a year. So seven billion people divided by three, John’s simple math, that ends up being three.
“We need three billion pigs a year.”
Human growth has not stopped, with the current average population increase estimated at 81 million people per year. He thinks that Canada doesn’t appreciate Canada’s pig industry, nor does the planet appreciate Canada’s pig industry.
Dr. Carr wakes up in the morning, and his job is to feed people pork, a high-quality protein, with calcium, vitamins and omega three, and all the rest, pork does it. In no way is he knocking poultry producers, fishers, and cattle boys because he wants various food himself. But let’s get real, 40 per cent of the world’s meat protein a day is pork. Again, when there is African Swine Fever, it’s chaos. The world needs Canada, the United States and Latin America because Europe and Africa have problems. Western Europe is very concerned because Germany has ASF.
With all the talk of animal disease and human viruses worldwide, biosecurity is vital and essential whether on the farm or through travel venues. Carr doesn’t think ASF is a particular threat to Canada because it mostly spreads through stupidity.  Invariably bringing a pork sausage from a different part of the world to Canada can cause the spread of ASF or other diseases from farm to farm.
“We take things for granted, but there are some acts that seem reasonably innocent, but it’s a good way of spreading African Swine Fever,” he said.While biosecurity keeps improving on pig farms in Alberta and Manitoba, almost no one has a fence and no control program for the feral wild pigs. Canada has this valuable resource, but he thinks the government doesn’t take it seriously enough.

“We play politics, but I think it’s a duty of care. I think Canada’s pig industry, although it might not think so, has a duty of care to feed this planet.”
Dr. Carr said ASF continues out of control except for the farms he consults; they’re fine and no ASF. He’s building farms elsewhere and recently bought some gilts, not breeding stock but won’t produce pork for another year, to 18 months.
China lost millions of gilts, and many need to go back into being breeding gilts. He’s talking about a female pig, not about purebreds eating the males and using the females.
Getting back to the pig industry in Canada, Carr has no idea what will happen in a year or next week, for that matter, so a producer has to cover his costs. The easiest way is to produce more pork without breaking the law.
“We have stringent stocking density regulations. But I still think the Canadians have got to cover their cost, so you’ve got to fill the farm,” he said. “So be joyous, be happy. Breed the sows with a smile. Because for some reason, there’s a big difference between, if you breed with a sad face, the buggers don’t get pregnant. Breed the sow with a smile, and the bloody things will get pregnant.”
Carr said people still have a role to play. But to be honest, be happy. The COVID-19 has illustrated how fortunate people are who work in agriculture and produce food for the world.
China needs pork; Asia needs pork. The planet needs pork. And Canada is blessed with reasonably good health status.
“So let’s do what we’re good at, making pork.” •
— By Harry Siemens