Saving Our Bacon
When H1N1 influenza threatened to finish off Alberta’s struggling pork industry, producers knew the key to their survival lay in truth and transparency
by Lisa Ricciotti
Hodgman embraced Funke’s approach, which matched his own philosophy. As he explains: “A wise man once told me, ‘If you always tell the truth, you never need to remember what you’ve said,’” he says. “We knew science was on our side, that pork was absolutely safe to handle, prepare and eat.”
That became one of Alberta Pork’s key public messages, crafted and delivered over long, 14- to 16-hour days and reinforced across Canada by the Canadian Pork Council. As Preugschas points out, “H1N1 was a very different situation than BSE. Science showed some linkage between BSE and eating beef, making it harder for the beef industry to defend itself. But for pork, there was no risk.” Also, this time around, the U.S. found itself in the same position as Canada, and instead of closing borders to Alberta pork, it joined the fight to keep export markets open.
And so the Save Our Swine saga was well underway. While driving home its main message about pork’s safety, Alberta Pork also found a silver lining in the H1N1 clouds. The quarantine of the infected Van Ginkel herd was as an opportunity to deliver its other key message: the little-known story about strict biosecurity measures already in place on Alberta pork farms. Van Ginkel had followed existing industry health protocol which requires pork producers to notify Alberta’s chief veterinarian when flu-like symptoms occur in their herds. It was proof that the safeguards were working, and that the industry had been operating proactively.
But the decision to provide such transparent communication was perhaps most tested by the sensitive issue of media demands for interviews with “the affected farmer.” To prevent “a media circus and the possible spread of the virus,” says Funke, Alberta Pork organized a “farm gate” media event. A personal statement written by Arnold Van Ginkel was read on location at the farmer’s property by a family friend. And though media were notified that he would not be present for interviews, they came in droves anyway, got their footage and sound bites and left satisfied.
Alberta Pork was similarly candid about the difficult decision to cull the entire Van Ginkel herd, about 3,000 pigs in all. It supported the producer by guiding him through the channels for financial aid, then sent out media releases and posted a Q-and-A explaining the reasons behind the cull on its information-packed website.
Funke feels these unvarnished responses by Alberta Pork went far to reassure the public and the pork industry, at home and abroad. By sharing information every step > of the way as it worked in tandem with provincial and national health officials, Alberta Pork showed an ability to swiftly identify, respond to and, to the best of its ability, contain the H1N1 virus. As well, Funke believes telling the story of Alberta pork producers sans spin made the public more willing to accept its pork-is-safe-to-eat message as science, not industry hype.
All that sounds like the makings of a success story – but it’s only half of the tale. Fifty per cent of Canadian pork is exported; in fact, Canada exports more pork than beef. “We convinced Canadians, but had a harder time persuading the Chinese and others,” says Preugschas. In total, 21 countries banned North American pork; China, Russia and the Philippines specifically refused Alberta exports. Even in countries that continued to import Alberta pork, prices were greatly reduced, says Preugschas. “Their attitude was, we’ll take it off your hands, but only if we get a real deal.”
Even within North America, Alberta Pork couldn’t quite convince everyone that it had earned a gold-star grade in averting a crisis of food safety. Amongst the campaign’s harsher critics is B.C. family physician Warren Bell. A self-described “busybody activist,” Bell is deeply involved in consumer protection issues, most notably with PharmaWatch, a non-profit advocacy group that monitors prescription drug safety. Bell has watched the H1N1 outbreak closely. His assessment of the crisis is based on how well two steps were executed: Step 1 – dealing with immediate issues; Step 2 – understanding why a crisis occurred and taking action to prevent recurrence.
For Step 1, Bell gives Alberta six out of 10: “This time cooler heads, sounder logic and more transparency prevailed, compared to swine flu outbreaks 20 years ago.” As for Step 2, Bell rates the pork industry’s response as a dismal 0.5. Bell stresses that raising pigs in close quarters in enclosed buildings is a recipe for the spread of infection. “The root cause of diseases like swine flu is built right into the pork industry’s infrastructure, no matter what biosecurity measures are taken.”
There’s certainly sense, even if not much practicality, in Bell’s suggestion that the solution is a return to small-scale pig farms of 150 years ago, but with the added benefits of current science and modern distribution systems. But in looking at Alberta Pork’s efforts alone, proof of their value already may be evident in the thousands of pulled pork sandwiches consumed at rallies the organization staged in Edmonton and Calgary in May. Or, more tellingly, it may lie in the fact that most of the international bans have already been lifted.
As the provincial crisis winds down, Alberta Pork is entering debriefing mode. It will analyze what worked, what to improve and update its emergency plan with lessons learned, such as how to co-ordinate faster with government regulators. “It could be 30 years before we need it again,” says Jodi Bakke, Alberta Pork director of policy and communications. “But if something like this happens again, the plan will be ready to pull off the shelf.”
That’s good, just in case we do need it a little sooner than expected.
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