Hog Watch Manitoba Revived Following Proposed Expansion of Hog Industry

Portage La Prairie – Hog Watch Manitoba, a group formed in 1999 to monitor the hog industry in the province, is being reconvened due to public concerns. A steering committee has met in Portage La Prairie to make plans for the group’s current work. Many people have expressed alarm at plans by the Pallister government to lift the moratorium on new hog barns, imposed by the previous NDP government in 2006. They fear the Premier’s move to “reduce red tape” will lead to more pollution, threatening our waterways and even human health.

  • Will government do away with rules preventing the spreading of manure on fields in the winter? Winter spreading has been shown to result in more waste escaping into surface water. In 2007, the Clean Environment Commission found that hog wastes spread on fields as a nutrient, “constitute the most serious environmental sustainability issues facing the industry.”
  •  Hog Watch wants the government to explain what has changed since 2007 that would justify a relaxation of regulations now.
  •  Hog Watch will ask for meetings with cabinet ministers most directly involved with the proposed changes and seek assurances that rules protecting the public and the environment will be preserved.

Hog Watch Manitoba was originally formed through a coalition of environmental groups, farmers, friends of animals, social justice advocates, trade unionists and scientists concerned about the industrialization of livestock raising in Manitoba.

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For further information contact:
  Vicki Burns - 204-489-3852 email  vickiburns@mts.net  ,
  Fred Tait – 204-252-2153  or
 Janine Gibson - 204-434-6018

Comments

John Fefchak said…

Scientific Facts.
Thanks Larry…. Hopefully the Pallister government will come to its senses in the realization that Lake Winnipeg and our water sources are suffering from high concentrations of phosphorus…..with hog manure previously identified as one of the main contributors.
John Fefchak said…
The Pallister government plans to amend regulations governing the safe disposal of manure
in Manitoba. (re: Wpg Free Press, Mar. 30)

The public needs to be made aware that the factory hog industry
continues to damage Manitoba's environment.

Experts Say:
"Let's Face It. Manitoba's hog industry is destructive to the environment says experts,and the return of small scale, mixed operation farming is needed to combat the influence of industrial hog operations in the province. You can't raise animals in factories and be environmentally benign says Joe Dolecki, professor of environmental economics at Brandon University.
Eva Pip, a biology and aquatic toxicologist, formerly at the University of Winnipeg,
points to manure phosphorus run-off as the main contributor to the algal bloom problem in Lake Winnipeg. If you have 10,000, 20,000 or more hogs just in one operation, that's all completely raw, untreated waste….that's the equivalent of a small city. In traditional agriculture,pigs are only one aspect of a mixed farming operation,meaning that manure is easily recycled back on to the fields and utilized, without excess problems. In Industrial hog agriculture you have so much waste that it is impossible not to end up polluting. Pip added.
This hog industry is a meat exporting business. Manitoban's consume about 6% of their production. The rest is shipped away, leaving us and our water sources to deal with all the waste and pollution that is produced and left behind.
Is it… Hog Industry economics vs: 'The health of Lake Winnipeg and
Manitoba waters'?
Think about your answer very carefully, before you commit a response.

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