PLANET IN PERIL

EcoWatch Driven by a global consensus around meat's negative contributions to climate change  and global health epidemics such as obesity, cancer & antibiotic resistance,  a new British report  concludes that a meat tax should be considered "inevitable" for any government serious about addressing the climate crisis & other health concerns that stem from livestock production. Story here. Dairy cows. USDA photo. Related:  "In Hogs We Trust."   Part #1   How the Manitoba government’s return to a deregulated hog industry could actually aggravate a world health crisis. "In Hogs We Trust." Part #2   The Price We Pay For Corporate Hog$

The Price We Pay For A$$embly-line Pork by Larry Powell Here is an important update to this story. The dollar cost to Manitobans of a deadly hog disease is being revealed. Yet key details regarding its magnitude remain secret. A Planet in Peril (PinP) exclusive.  Taxpayers in Manitoba had better get ready to dig deeper. Our provincial government has just relaxed the rules so the hog industry can expand. And, given past history, more corporate welfare will, surely, soon be flowing again into the trough for producers.   I’ve compiled a probably-incomplete history of largesse which has already been bestowed upon factory barn operators in just the past ten years.   I think you’ll agree, the numbers are impressive.   I'll begin with HyLife Foods.   It’s located on the outskirts of the small, central Manitoba town of Neepawa, where I used to live.  HyLife describes itself as “the largest pork processing company in Canada.” (“Pork processing” is actual

Could the Manitoba government’s return to a deregulated hog industry actually contribute to a world health crisis? by  Larry Powell   The Pallister government has just passed its  “Red Tape Reduction and Government Efficiency Act.”  The bill makes it easier (and cheaper) for pig producers to build new factory barns, expand existing ones, store and dispose of the waste and to even spend less on fire protection.  According to the industry group, “Manitoba Pork,”  as many as 100 new factory barns  may now be built over the next ten years. A CanStock Photo image. What the Bill  will not do  is stop the dangerous overuse of antibiotics in animal agriculture. Livestock owners around the world (including Manitoba’s hog producers) have long been giving these medicines to their animals, whether to treat the sick, prevent the healthy from  getting  sick, or simply to fatten them up for market. This is all perfectly legal here and in many other countries.

Manitoba Co-operator Anaerobic digesters out, new barns in. Story here. RELATED:   More alarm bells sound over drug usage in the world’s intensive livestock operations.

CBC news Fire commissioner's office investigating the cause of the blaze. Story here.

by Larry Powell writes from  SHOAL LAKE, MANITOBA. The World Health Organization is  ramping up its warnings  about the health risks of giving antibiotics to animals raised in intensive livestock operations (ILOs) everywhere.  In   an announcement in Geneva this week ,   the UN agency had some straight talk for the world’s food industry and animal farmers in the form of several formal recommendations: •                Stop giving antibiotics to food animals altogether  if it’s just to speed their growth - or prevent disease .  A CanStock photo image. •                Don’t give   them to healthy animals unless disease has already been diagnosed in another part of the same herd. •                Cut back on the amount of antibiotics given to animals for any reason.  •                And even when animals become sick, o nly give them antibiotics not considered critically important in the treatment of human infections . (Drugs used in

The Guardian - George Monbiot We are still living in the long 20 th  Century. We are stuck with its redundant technologies: the internal combustion engine; thermal power plants; factory farms. We are stuck with its redundant politics: unfair electoral systems; their capture by funders and lobbyists; the failure to temper representation with real participation. Story here.

Winnipeg Free Press WINNIPEG - Green Party leader James Beddome wasn't the least bit subtle Wednesday about what he thinks of the Pallister government's red tape reduction bill. "This bill stinks!"  Beddome declared to a rally on the steps of the Manitoba legislature. "It's part of a Conservative agenda that tells us all regulation is bad," Beddome said. "Government efficiency means don't do our homework; if there's no data, there's no problem." Environmental activists led by the Wilderness Committee and Hog Watch Manitoba protested Bill 24, an omnibus bill going to public hearings sometime later this month, warning that within its reductions to regulations were changes that would allow the expansion of industrial hog barns that would further jeopardize the health of Lake Winnipeg. Speakers could not agree on  how many sets of regulations are threatened by red tape reduction - 12, 14, and 15 were all cited - bu

Please check out this brand new website from Hog Watch Manitoba to find out about the provincial governments disturbing plans for hog industry expansion and why you should care!

THE BUREAU OF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM A Bureau investigation has found pig, poultry and dairy farms are releasing harmful pollution once a week on average in England and Wales. STORY HERE.

Dr. Blaine Tully   - Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians Farmscape for July 28, 2017 The President of the Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians says swine veterinarian in Manitoba have stepped up their focus on addressing a new more virulent strain of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome. A new more virulent strain of PRRS, a viral infection that affects pigs of all ages and stages of growth, has been identified in Manitoba. Dr. Blaine Tully, the President of the Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians and a partner with Swine Health Professionals in Steinbach, says genetic sequencing to determine whether it's related to strains experienced in Manitoba or other parts of the country have shown that its kind of a lone wolf. Clip-Dr. Blaine Tully-Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians: We have about 12 or 15 farms, the majority of which are in southeast Manitoba but we do know there's farms in the Interlake and out into central Manitoba that h

Vicki Burns and Janine Gibson. For the last three decades, hog production in Manitoba has become increasingly industrialized with the number of pigs per barn jumping to the thousands and the number of actual pig producers dropping from over 14,000 in 1971 to a mere 200 today. The pigs that are the basis of this industry are often referred to as animal units. The production system is under constant pressure to produce more piglets at less cost, resembling an industrial assembly line. The pigs never see the light of day or have the opportunity to root in straw or breathe fresh air. How far we have moved from family farming to this industrial model, where thousands of animals are kept inside buildings with minimal human contact, feed is automated and they must live above pits of their own feces and urine. This industrial hog production that dominates the Manitoba landscape is resulting in devastating issues that are in the headlines now. Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PED) has n