The family farm strikes back

The Ontario government made headlines last week when, with much fanfare, it announced a $5.3-million grant to a growing, Breslau-based pork processor.

But the biggest news story, in our opinion, is the rousing success of the Conestoga Meat Packers’ plant itself, and the local family farms that are its heart and soul.

The upcoming $50-million expansion of the plant’s Menno Street facility is the fifth that has happened since a group of farmers banded together, formed the Progressive Pork Producers Co-operative and in 2001 bought Conestoga Meat Packers.

Back then, it was a small operation in Breslau with just 35 employees.

Today, it’s Ontario’s second largest pork producer and boasts a staff of 900.

Over the next two years with the expansion that will double processing capacity, the staff will grow to 1,070 — and more jobs could follow.

This isn’t just another successful business tale, however, because this isn’t an ordinary business.

It’s not part of some multinational behemoth or even a large, Canadian agrifood corporation.

Nope. It’s owned by 157 southern Ontario farmers who supply the plant with almost all of the animals it needs.

According to the company’s website, every farm in the co-operative is family owned and operated and has been producing pork for decades.

The farmers feed their hogs only high-quality grains grown in their fields. No growth hormones or chemicals are used.

In addition, the website says all of the farms are within a three-hour drive of the processing plant, which should appeal to consumers who want to buy local.

What this means, in effect, is that a group of local family farmers has deftly cut out the corporate middleman.

The farmers are in charge of the product at every stage, from the growing of grains and the raising of livestock to the processing of those animals into food sold domestically and exported to 29 countries.

Government grants to privately-owned enterprises are often controversial.

But if the policy of the Ontario government is to support Ontario businesses, Conestoga Meat Packers is as worthy a recipient as you’ll find.

There’s a long tradition in Waterloo Region of raising animals and processing their meat.

In 2015, however, the most famous of these operations, the Schneiders plant in Kitchener, was closed when parent company Maple Leaf Foods opened a newer plant in Hamilton.

Over several years as production at the 97-year-old Kitchener plant was wound down, more than 1,000 local jobs were lost. All of that represented a painful loss for this community.

But the economic ecosystem is diverse. Manufacturing plants have lives of their own. Some die, others are born and take their place.

Today, the tradition of processing pork, employing lots of people to do it and boosting the local economy lives on in this region.

We applaud the hard-working, risk-taking rural entrepreneurs who made it happen.