A FEW months back, the Department of Agriculture (DA), knowing the perils that come with our porous borders and the greed of meat importers and smugglers, came out with a plea. The appeal was this: Cases of the lethal African swine fever, the dreaded ASF, had been reported in eight countries (China, Russia, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar). Please have a sense of country and stop getting pork from these countries.