Larry Powell Powell is a veteran, award-winning journalist based in Shoal Lake, Manitoba, Canada. He specialize in stories about agriculture and the environment. For decades, he worked for broadcast outlets in all four provinces in western Canada. This included a 5 years stint as Senior Editor for CBC Radio News in Saskatchewan. He is authorized to receive embargoed news releases on important, global stories, through the Science Media Centre of Canada, the Royal Society, Nature Research and the World Weather Attribution Network. He's a member of the Science Writers and Communicators of Canada, the Canadian Association of Journalists and a past member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2020, Powell joined an international team of writers providing articles for the Swiss-based online journal, Focusing on Wildlife - celebrating the biodiversity of Planet Earth. In June, 2014, he was a panelist at a world conference in Winnipeg entitled Holding
Comments
When the Manitoba Conservative government rolled out the welcome mat to the invasive hog Industry in
the mid 1990's, Premier Filmon always emphasized that there would be further "Value Added compliments
and benefits " to Manitobans. And he was right!
For the past 20 years amid the anger, frustrations and anxiety of rural residents this hog Industry,with the
blessings of provincial and municipal governments have built their huge hog producing factories nearly
anywhere that suited them.
This kind of intensive hog production impacts the quality of living for humans, causes air pollution-noxious odours,
toxic gases and drug pollution. As well, antibiotics, growth-enhancing chemicals and other veterinary drugs end up
in the animals themselves and enter the environment through their manure and urine, contaminating the water, the
soil and our food. Then of course there is the situation of manure itself. A hog complex will produce faeces equivalent
to the population of a small city.....all untreated and incorporated unto the land, eventually finding it's way into
water sources and Lake Winnipeg as the end designation.
But wait....now there is more..for in addition to causing immense animal suffering,factory farms are spawning
dangerous superbugs that current antibiotics are powerless against.
In May,2016, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research reported the first U.S. case of Colistin-resistent infection,
involving a patient in Pennsylvania. Also that month,researchers at USDA and Health and Human Services reported
finding Colistin-resistant E.coli in a pig intestinal sample.
Because Colistin is a last resort drug for treating superbug (multi-drug resistant) infections, these discoveries signal we are
that much closer to what has been referred to as a post-antibiotic era, where people will die from once-treatable infections.
The question that needs to be addressed by our government is," Why are they allowing this Industry to continue raising
hogs in a fashion that endangers the very lives and well being of people"?
As verification and follow up, the United Nations has recognized
the seriousness of the situation and has become involved.
"UN meeting tackles the 'fundamental threat' of antibiotic resistant superbugs".
This is only the fourth time, since it's existence, the general assembly has held a
high level meeting for a health issue.
The dangers are real, and must not be ignored.
Governments must re-act accordingly to direct the hog industry.
This is not a time for complacency.