CCPA
 |
| Photo credit: Pangalau |
Massive dairy concentrated animal feeding operations
(CAFOs) being permitted and proposed in North Dakota
are a threat to our waterways, including Lake Winnipeg &
the groundwater which many people
rely upon to drink. Story here.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
Campaigners call for more sustainable system after revelations that huge farms near the Wye and Severn got £14m in subsidies. Story here.
THE GUARDIAN
SPONSORED BY:
Over 30 years ago, large factory style barns, used for raising pigs, started dotting the landscape across southern Manitoba. Not surprisingly, within just a few years, smelly and sometimes toxic bluegreen algae blooms began to dominate Lake Winnipeg, and other southern Manitoba lakes. Was this just a coincidence? Not quite.
In these factory style barns, often thousands of pigs are kept confined together on slatted floors through which their urine and feces fall, collecting in pits underneath. Toxic fumes of hydrogen sulphide, methane, ammonia and carbon dioxide rise from these pits and are blown out into the neighbouring communities by large industrial fans. Should those fans fail, the fumes are so poisonous that the pigs will suffocate within a few hours.
Factory hog barn.
These waste pits are routinely emptied into open lagoons near the barns, once again causing nauseating odours for neighbours. Those lagoons are then emptied twice a year when that liquid manure is either sprayed or injected into the soil on neighbouring fields to be used as fertilizer. The reason the manure is considered good fertilizer is that it contains phosphorus and nitrogen, both nutrients essential for growth of any plants.
So, what’s the problem? Aside from subjecting animals to a life of misery and deprivation, there is simply too much manure to be safely applied each year. The excess phosphorus and nitrogen that is not taken up by whatever crop is grown, may run off during the spring melt, rainstorms, and floods. It then gets into streams, rivers and lakes including our beloved Lake Winnipeg.
Phosphorus and nitrogen are the two main nutrients that feed blue-green algae. The amount of phosphorus getting into Lake Winnipeg has increased substantially since the 1990s and the algae blooms have matched that growth. Did you know that government regulations in Manitoba allow for manure application at rates of five times what the crop can use in one year, as long as manure is not re-applied for five years? This assumes that the phosphorus and nitrogen will remain in that soil without moving all that time.
But we know that during floods, rains, snowmelt these nutrients may run off and get into our waterways. Scientists who have measured where the phosphorus originates from, tell us that within Manitoba, 35% of phosphorus getting into Lake Winnipeg comes from agriculture, while only 12% comes from the city of Winnipeg.
In 2007, the Clean Environment Commission issued a report on the sustainability of the hog industry in Manitoba, and one of the recommendations was that government review phosphorus application provisions of the Livestock Mortalities and Manure Management Regulation, after the regulation has been in place for five years. That review has never happened, and its now 17 years later. Why not?
Blue-green algae in a lake.
Its no wonder that there is too much manure to be safely dealt with when you consider that in 1991 there were an average of 434 pigs per farm in Manitoba but that has now ballooned to an average of 5,563 according to Stats Canada.
So, what is Hog Watch Manitoba calling for? The phase out of factory style barns over the next five years to be replaced by the conventional way of raising pigs, on straw, with fewer numbers of animals per barn. This includes access to outdoors when weather is suitable, no routine antibiotics in feed and amending the manure application regulations to reflect the agronomic benefit of recommended levels of phosphorus in soil. As well, stop the subsidization of industrial hog facilities and offer education and financial incentives to farmers who want to raise pigs on straw in conventional, more humane, environmentally sustainable ways. The animals, farm staff, communities living near hog factories, and our lakes will all benefit. And Manitoba can finally be proud of leading the way from the ills of industrialized hog production, to a more humane, ethical regenerative mode of raising pigs.
Manitoba Co-Operator
In a 700-plus word article appearing in several rural papers recently, Cam Dahl, the industry group’s general manager, makes the preposterous claim that “it’s hard to be green while in the red.” LETTER HERE.
The Manitoba Co-Operator - by Vicki Burns
Letter to the editor.
"The entire pork industry in Manitoba is facing a difficult time. That includes the hog farmers as well as the processors," GM Cam Dahl of MB Pork told the Brandon Sun, 17 June,2023.
Without the benefit of taxpayers’ dollars (read: government support), the Manitoba hog industry (not farming) would have collapsed many years ago.
Born and raised on a farm, I appreciate the proper raising and care of swine. Pigs produced in a factory-type situation however, live in conditions that are far removed from achieving humane animal stewardship status.
Bad ideas and poor operating principles are very costly for the animals, our environment and society.
It was some 24 years ago that the Filmon Progressive Conservative government unfurled the red carpet and opened Pandora’s box for the hog Industry to come into Manitoba. Now, since being elected in 2016, the Pallister and Stefanson regimes—through their Red Tape Reduction Act—have taken the cue to further expand the industry by discarding much of the legislation that had been put in place to protect our environment, Lake Winnipeg, and Manitoba water sources.
Yes, it is very clear that Mr. Pallister and Premier Stefanson’s ministers have been busy reading the Filmon manual on how to manage the Manitoba government on the value-added concept of economics regarding the hog Industry.
I often think there are those who will not be pleased with anything short of a regulatory footprint so light it allows hog barns to be built on floating platforms in the middle of Lake Winnipeg.
This hog industry of Maple Leaf Foods and foreign-owned Hylife Foods is a meat exporting business. Manitobans consume about six per cent of their production. The rest is shipped away, leaving Manitobans to deal with all the waste and pollution that is leaves behind.
Unfortunately, polluted water, toxic air, health concerns and the plight of rural residents is not a consideration to Manitoba’s government.
This political transgression of ruination is upon us, affecting the future of our children and generations that follow.
Pig production on straw that meets the animals’ needs and is still profitable – is that possible? Yes! With the sustainable and animal-friendly Xaletto® straw bedding concept, both piglet rearing and pig finishing are profitable, either in closed houses or in ventilated barns with open-air run.
Xaletto® is the result of a collaboration between Big Dutchman, the feed producer Bröring and an experienced farmer. Prerequisites for the success of the Xaletto® concept include:
Big Industry Hiding the Truth
Let the Public See How Pigs Are Housed
(Winnipeg July 14,2022) – Hog Watch Manitoba supports the goals of Amy Sorrano and Nick Schafer, convicted animal rights activists. They have asked that cameras be installed in intensive confinement hog barns in order to monitor how pigs are being treated in these huge facilities.
Currently, there is no way for the public or concerned citizens to ensure that pigs are being treated humanely or to even understand how the pigs are being raised.
Entry into the barns is tightly controlled for biosecurity and public relation reasons.
“The hog industry has good reason to keep their barn doors tightly closed” says Vicki Burns, Hog Watch Manitoba Steering committee member, “They know that many of the public would be disgusted by how these animals are forced to live, crammed in with hundreds of animals, above pits of their urine and feces, breathing in toxic gases rising from the manure pits.”
Hog Watch Manitoba advocates for the industry to shift to more humane conditions for the animals which includes fewer animals housed together and straw-based barns. The manner in which the animals are housed now amounts to institutionalized cruelty because of the lifelong chronic suffering the animals experience, never getting outside, no straw or pasture to root in, tails docked because of being tightly packed in with other pigs, adult female pigs confined in gestation stalls their entire adult lives.
Hog Watch Manitoba does not support criminal activities but efforts to show the public how pigs are kept is essential to shifting consumers and the industry away from factory raised pork.
“ If the public knew the facts, as consumers they may make different purchasing choices and that’s bad news for the hog industry. Cruelty to support profits is not acceptable. Positive changes can be made in the housing of pigs and still have a viable industry”.
-30-
For more information contact:
I
Vicki Burns , Hog Watch Manitoba Steering Committee
204-489-3852 vickiburns@mts.net
Bill Massey , Hog Watch Manitoba Steering Committee
204-461-3468 wmassey@highspeedcrow.ca
Alternatives to factory model of hog production:
· Animals housed in barns with straw bedding and having access to outside pastures, no liquid manure slurry system
· Fewer animals per barn
· No antibiotics in animal feed. Only antibiotics administered if the animal is sick and has been prescribed by a veterinarian
· Examples of alternative systems - Xaletto Straw housing System Germany - Xaletto: the economic management system for closed houses with straw bedding - Big Dutchman
Joel Salatin, Polyface Farms SECRETS to raising PIGS for LAND REGENERATION & PROFIT - Bing video
National Observer
In the early hours of Dec. 7, 2019, members of the social justice group Rose’s Law entered a barn through an unlocked door at the Porgreg pig breeding facility in Saint-Hyacinthe, Que. Inside, they videotaped vile conditions. Seven hours later, they were arrested. Story here.
Hogs at the tail end of misguided provincial planning allowing intensive hog operations on flood plains.
“Where is the wisdom allowing these type of operations to be built on flood plains” says Janine Gibson long time member of HOG WATCH who resides among the heaviest concentration of these operations in Southeastern Manitoba.
As a known flood plain, the Red River Valley experienced severe floods in 1997, 2009, 2011 and now again, this year.
“What on earth was the province thinking when the moratorium was lifted to allow these massive hog operations to further expand. Now we face increasing amounts of phosphorus and nitrogen into the watershed,” she adds.
In 2017 the provincial Conservative government removed key sections in the Environment Act that restricted new hog barn development on known floodplains.
Recent aerial photos from HOG WATCH clearly show hog operations and fields within a vast sea of water covering thousands of acres routinely used for hog manure spread fields. HOG WATCH members touring some of the flooded areas were assaulted by the stench of hog manure as it washed over the flooded land.
Bill Massey, who raises sustainable pigs for private use and has been contesting a large hog operation in Rock Lake Colony near Grosse Isle Manitoba for over 18 years, says the math is simple;
“Much of the manure spread last Fall will be carried away this spring as soils become saturated. Phosphorus and nitrogen have not had time to be taken up by any crops and tons will be carried into our rivers and lakes as well as other bacteria, feeding toxic blue-green algae blooms this summer.”
Typically hog manure is either injected into the soil or spread onto fields as nutrients for crops. Excessive manure can contain harmful bacteria like E. coli or and viruses causing groundwater contamination and fish kills.
Janie Gibson sums up this way, “The time has passed where pursuing profit at any cost to Manitoba’s environment makes sense. It doesn’t! Manitoba is the largest hog producing province per population in Canada and the government takes pride in its plans for more intensive hog industry growth. This has to end!”
Hog Watch Manitoba is a non-profit coalition of environmentalists, farmers, animal welfare and social justice advocates, trade unions and scientists that promotes a hog industry in Manitoba that is ethically, environmentally and economically sustainable.
For more information and to arrange an interview:
CONTACT(s):
(Winnipeg April 27, 2022) – Hog Watch Manitoba is asking for help for rural residents whose lives are negatively impacted by noxious odours from neighbouring hog barns. Those bad smells are not just a nuisance but can contain toxic gases that have human health impacts.
“Hog Watch Manitoba recently purchased a hydrogen sulfide gas monitoring device ACRULOG H2S to measure gases causing foul smells for rural residents” says Vicki Burns, Hog Watch Manitoba spokesperson. “We don’t have any government support like the inspectors who take measurements in the city. The Manitoba government seems to expect rural residents to put up with it as a routine cost of living in the country”.
Recent readings from one location near a hog barn have documented high levels of hydrogen sulfide. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) exposure to hydrogen sulfide may cause irritation to the eyes and respiratory system. It can also cause apnea, coma, convulsions; dizziness, headache, weakness, irritability, insomnia; stomach upset.
Over the years Hog Watch Manitoba has heard many stench related complaints from rural residents. “We felt that we needed to collect actual data to prove that this is a legitimate health concern and not simply a nuisance. We are asking the province of Manitoba to require odour mitigation measures around all factory hog barns in Manitoba” explains Janine Gibson, Secretary of Hog Watch Manitoba. “This is an interim measure until we can shift the industry to smaller, straw-based barns that are environmentally sustainable, treat the animals and the human workers in a more ethical manner and are economically stable”.
-30-
Hog Watch Manitoba is a coalition of farmers, environmentalists, animal welfare advocates, scientists and rural residents who are advocating for a move away from industrial factory style barns to smaller straw-based farms that are environmentally, ethically, and economically sustainable. Hog Watch Manitoba - What's the Big Stink?
Many well-informed, dedicated and concerned individuals produced this video in 2008. Sadly, their warnings about the dirty and dangerous consequences of unregulated factory "farming" in Manitoba have not been heeded. The industry has been given free-rein and continues to expand with few, if any checks and balances. The video is less than an hour long. I implore you to take the time to watch! If you did see it before, perhaps it will remind you again of just how grave these issues really are. If you have not, I know it will concern you, too - perhaps even inspire you to take action of your own. Thank you!
PinP
Below is a financial statement posted on the company website.
They dispute the company’s claim this is being built in an isolated area as there are 8 homes in less than a 3 km circumference of one barn and the other is in close range to the Big Grass River and marshland, environmentally sensitive areas.
There were 52 letters of opposition to the proposal and numerous presentations made expressing legitimate concerns about health impacts from toxic emissions from barns and open manure lagoons, and water consumption of 44,000 gallons a day depleting local water resources.
Hog Watch Manitoba is calling on both the provincial and federal governments to review their decision and if it cannot be reversed, provide local residents with assurances that toxic odour problems and water shortages will not be allowed. Mitigation such as air scrubbers on barns and water rights being enshrined should be imposed.
-30-
