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Abstract
The hog industry in Western Canada in 1960s was in a state of turmoil associated with a
vague, poorly understood production and marketing problem. Hog production was largely a
supplementary farm activity producing an overfat product increasingly shunned by consumers.
The structure, and also probably the existence, of the industry was in question.
During the following 20 years, the industry changed fundamentally as various groups
achieved a better definition and understanding of the problem. A reshaping of the industry
was carried out by farmers, the Provincial Government, and a variety of agricultural
professionals concerned with industry structure, emerging pork markets, physical characteristics
of the product, and creation of a policy environment that provided incentives for output
and productivity growth. The outcome has been the development of a viable pork industry in
the Province (in spite of some past and continuing hindrances to industry growth) that has
substantially solved the problem.