SO WHO'SE UNFRIENDLY? MANITOBANS OR THE HOG LOBBY?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, May 19, 2008 Beyond Factory Farming Manitoba, a group promoting the ethical production of livestock, has launched a new website as a response to the "Unfriendly Manitoba" ad campaign by the Manitoba Pork Council. “It’s time to put the friendly back into Manitoba farming,” says BFF's Glen Koroluk. There is a small minority in our community who would make you believe that Bill 17 would devastate our province. The Truth of the matter is that the Bill does not go far enough! It will still allow unfriendly factory hog barns to continue to operate and expand in most of rural Manitoba. Bill 17 is an amendment to the Manitoba Environment Act which. If enacted, it will prohibit the construction of new, confined livestock areas for hogs and hog manure storage facilities, or the expansion of exisiting ones, in specific areas of Manitoba. It allows existing factory farms in these areas to operate business as usual. However, these areas make up less than a third of Manitoba’s farm land, leaving the rest of the province open for unfettered large-scale factory hog production. Shifting a polluting industry from one part of the province to the other is not friendly to family farms, not friendly to the environment, and not friendly to rural Manitoba. And as it stands, Bill 17 will not reverse the deterioration of our provincial waterways, including Lake Winnipeg. In fact, with millions of dollars of taxpayer aid, Manitoba’s hog industry is restructuring, consolidating and expanding its slaughter capacity. This means Maple Leaf Foods and Hytek will be building new factory finishing barns in western Manitoba. The launch of http://www.friendlymanitoba.org will take place: 11:00 am on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at the Forks Market: Tower Atrium (beside the canopy) For further information, call Glen Koroluk at 296-2872 cell 943-3945  

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