Sailorsam
Member
- Location
- Merryland USA
Back in the day Europeans settled in the Americas bringing with them lots of European stuff like livestock, including the pig. In Haiti the pig developed into a smaller variant.
In the early 1980s a strain of Swine Flu hit Haiti (and neighboring Dominican Republic). USA scientists convinced the Haitian government to eradicate the Creole pig and replace with US and Canada breeds. (Snitches got rewards for turning in neighbors that tried to hide their pigs.)
Unfortunately the northern breeds, while bigger, did not well tolerate the heat in Haiti. They also required better feed and concrete enclosures, beyond the resources of many Haitian farmers.
The Creole pig was well adapted to Haiti, living on scraps and foraging, able to live on minimal and low-quality food. A lot of rural Haitians only had an acre or two to garden, mostly growing corn and vegetables and working day jobs, and were unable to afford the pig upgrade.
This whole affair resulted in net financial losses to thousands of already-poor Haitians.
Modern agriculture has produced a new version of the Creole pig. And, happy to say, a few of the old breed survived in the back corners of the Island.
Hard to say how much of all this was well-meaning but naive agronomists, and how much was Government meddling and even kickbacks from US and Canada swine growers.
sources: https://www.livestockoftheworld.com/pigs/Breeds.asp?BreedLookupID=1802&SpeciesID=12
https://mronline.org/2021/10/16/the-curious-case-of-haitian-pigs-and-canadian-imperialism/
In the early 1980s a strain of Swine Flu hit Haiti (and neighboring Dominican Republic). USA scientists convinced the Haitian government to eradicate the Creole pig and replace with US and Canada breeds. (Snitches got rewards for turning in neighbors that tried to hide their pigs.)
Unfortunately the northern breeds, while bigger, did not well tolerate the heat in Haiti. They also required better feed and concrete enclosures, beyond the resources of many Haitian farmers.
The Creole pig was well adapted to Haiti, living on scraps and foraging, able to live on minimal and low-quality food. A lot of rural Haitians only had an acre or two to garden, mostly growing corn and vegetables and working day jobs, and were unable to afford the pig upgrade.
This whole affair resulted in net financial losses to thousands of already-poor Haitians.
Modern agriculture has produced a new version of the Creole pig. And, happy to say, a few of the old breed survived in the back corners of the Island.
Hard to say how much of all this was well-meaning but naive agronomists, and how much was Government meddling and even kickbacks from US and Canada swine growers.
sources: https://www.livestockoftheworld.com/pigs/Breeds.asp?BreedLookupID=1802&SpeciesID=12
https://mronline.org/2021/10/16/the-curious-case-of-haitian-pigs-and-canadian-imperialism/