Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, a Toronto-area Member of Parliament, has caught the attention of farmers because he has introduced a private member’s bill that raises alarm that modern farming could trigger a pandemic.
What’s doubly worrisome is that Erskine-Smith is rumoured to be a candidate to become leader of the Ontario Liberal Party.
Stephen Heckbert, executive director of the Canadian Pork Council, said he has launched an effort to inform MPs about the pork industry’s preparedness to deal with epidemics.
And the council is pointing out that pork farmers’ biosecurity measures kept COVID-19 from devastating the pork industry and the Canadian supply of safe food.
“We were ready,” he said.
“It’s a matter of education,” Heckbert said in a private interview during the annual meeting of the Ontario Pork board in Guelph.
Heckbert some of Erskine-Smith’s proposals indicate he favours converting Canada’s farming and food industry out of meats, dairy and poultry into plant based foods.
The bill says in part that:
“after consultation with the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, the Minister of Industry and provincial governments, provide for measures to
- (i) reduce the risks posed by antimicrobial resistance,
- (ii) regulate commercial activities that can contribute to pandemic risk, including industrial animal agriculture,
- (iii) promote commercial activities that can help reduce pandemic risk, including the production of alternative proteins, and
- (iv) phase out commercial activities that disproportionately contribute to pandemic risk, including activities that involve high-risk species.”
- Another section says:
- “a summary of the measures the Minister of the Environment intends to take to reduce the risk that the commercial wildlife trade in Canada and abroad will lead to a pandemic, including measures to regulate or phase out live animal markets, and . . .”
- The bill has passed first and second readings in the House of Commons, but isn’t going forward until it is assigned to a committee.
