The Other White Meat

The Quebec pork industry is in trouble. (I can hear the shrieks of terror from wherever you’re reading this) To pin the tail on the pig, it's the demand for Quebec pork which has fallen. Don't worry, we still have lots of healthy pigs and healthy Quebecers to produce them. The chop of the issue is that we’re having problems exporting our pork because the Canadian dollar has gone up meaning that foreigners have to fork-over more dough to buy our pork. Additionally, there are low cost producers that are cutting the pork belly out of the price (yes, this is happening in almost every manufacturing sector). Quebec exports 45% ($1.06 billion) of its pork production meaning that it is a very big part of the pig that is at stake here (yummm, Steak).

What’s the answer? Not sure, probably a combination of things including increased efficiencies in our production plants allowing us to produce the same quality at a cheaper price. It has meant decreased wages at different plants around the province. But we can also do our part by enjoying the other white meat.

So what does this have to do with cooking?
I’m just trying to do my bit as a good citizen that cares about his pig brothers and pig sisters so for the next week I’ll post a number of pork recipes. The truth is that pork is delicious, and I’m not just talking about bacon or sausages. Not only that, pork can be very healthy as well.

So have a good week, and get ready to eat some pork.

The Quebec Pork Industry at a Glance (info from La Presse Saturday March 3rd)
- There are 4111 pork producers in Quebec
- 28,000 direct and indirect jobs (that's a lot for one province)
- $2.7 billion industry