The H1N1 virus is still having an impact on Alberta's pork industry.
Sales of pork plummeted when the disease started to spread around the globe and those sales still haven't recovered.
Now producers want the government to step in.
Alfred Wahl with Peak Swine Genetics hopes a lot more Albertans will help themselves to some pork. He works in the pork industry and says times are tough.
"It would be preferable to have a higher price for pork, but if that's not going to be the case, then is there some financial support."
Pork producers gave out free sandwiches at the McDougall Centre to rally support for their industry. They say just when the business was recovering from high feed prices and a high Canadian dollar, it was dealt its worse blow yet.
Jurgen Preugschas is with the Canadian Pork Council. "We were just coming into a period of higher prices where we were looking at actually some profit this summer for the first time in three years, and then we get hammered with the H1N1."
The so-called Swine Flu gutted consumer confidence, even though there is no connection between eating pork and contracting the illness.
The price of hogs has dropped by up to forty dollars each and producers say they're bleeding money. They want the government to step in.
Alberta Pork's Paul Hodgson says, "Quite frankly getting a hand out grant I don't think is in the cards, but some way to get cash whether it be a loan or a ledge program or we adapt the elements of existing programs that allows producers access to cash to pay the bills."
The province says it doing what it can but in this case, the real power lies with the federal government.
The industry says it's redefining itself, it's becoming more varied, more organic and hopefully, more appealing to consumers.
Producers here say they need just enough help to make that transition complete.
