Better weather and normal global grain production key to avoid food shortages, says Sask pork producer
By Bruce Cochrane, Farmscape
A partner with Polar Pork Farms is suggesting a return to more normal weather conditions and improved grain production will be critical to stabilizing global food supplies.
Reduced feed grain production due to drought last summer in western Canada followed by problems with trucking made accessing feed grain over the winter challenging and now the conflict in Ukraine is impacting global grain production.
“It would be very beneficial for us here on the prairies if we got back to normal rainfall and had a successful growing season,” said Florian Possberg, a partner in Saskatchewan’s Polar Pork Farms. “If we can produce good crops and keep everything sort of normal in terms of keeping people fed, there is a chance that we can have relative stability. However, if we see food shortages in parts of the globe that are going hungry, we know that food shortages are one of the main causes of political instability and that's not good.”
The Russian Ukrainian war is expected to result in reduced grain production in that region and reduce global availability of fertilizer, impacting grain production in other regions. Possberg says we have a very intertwined global mechanism for producing food so there is a high likelihood that the conflict will affect the entire food supply.
“Because of the factors in Russia and Ukraine, they're not only big grain producers themselves, wheat and corn and other grains, but they also produce a lot of fertilizer that's used around the globe. For example, Brazil depends a lot on Russian and Ukrainian fertilizer for their fertilizer supplies and it has an impact on our fertilizer availability here as well,” explained Possberg. “We need a good crop all around the world to make up for the lack of fertilizer supplies and those sorts of things.”
“Add to that, there's going to be grainland in Ukraine that isn't put into crop because there's tanks and soldiers all around. That's not a good stable way to produce a crop so the supply of grain from that part of the world is going to be affected as well,” explained Possberg. “Globally, we have a very intertwined global mechanism of producing food and there's a quite a high likelihood that this is going to impact and cause parts of the food supply to be severely impacted.”
With over 45 years in the pork industry, Possberg is a well-known advocate for the hog industry. Possberg has held positions on the board of Sask Pork, as well as positions with the Canadian Pork Council, and Prairie Swine Centre.
“High grain prices mean our cost of production goes up and it's not just us,” added Possberg. “Because the global grain supply is threatened, it affects everything from a loaf of bread to a beef steak and everything in between.”
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