Manitobans deserve transparency, not unsubstantiated environmental claims from their pork sector.

Hog Watch Manitoba - June 23rd, 2023.

    Hog Watch Manitoba, a non-profit, advocacy group, says it believes a recent claim by Manitoba Pork about how much water it is using, needs more proof.     

    In a newspaper ad, the industry organization declares, “Hog farms today require 40% less water per kilogram of pork produced, compared to fifty years ago.”   

    Larry Powell of Hog Watch says this doesn’t tell the whole story. 

    "Even if consumption per unit has gone down, what does it matter when that figure is surely being eclipsed by rising animal numbers? There are well over three times as many pigs on Manitoba farms now as there were half-a-century ago. 

    "Not only that, the use of slurry, which has been spread on vast farm fields in this province for decades, is more than 80% water. It's been on the increase since the nineties. 

    "A University of Manitoba study concluded that pigs produced 346 thousand tonnes of dry manure in 2007 alone. Since the spreading of slurry was a common and growing practise, even back then, it must surely have added up to a staggering total.

An industry photo.

    "Besides, research by the industry itself shows finisher pigs can waste up to 25% of the water they use, even from 'well-managed' nipple-drinkers."

    Powell adds, there's good reason the public deserves full disclosure on this vital issue. 

    "Experts have long been warning, 'As climate change tightens its grip, multi-year droughts are taking a severe toll, especially on cattle and grain producers. With drought and heatwaves becoming a worsening problem on the semi-arid Canadian prairies, competition for a diminishing supply of water will become a major problem in the future. And excess use of water by this industry may be a threat to both local and regional water sources.'

    "So if Manitoba Pork wants to be seen as a good corporate citizen, the people of this province need more assurance than this, that our finite supply of freshwater can sustain it, indefinitely into the future."

                                                

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    Hog Watch Manitoba is a non-profit organization, a coalition of environmentalists, farmers, friends of animals, social justice advocates, scientists and concerned citizens. We are promoting a hog industry in Manitoba that is ethically, environmentally, and economically sustainable. 

    Data for this statement comes from Statistics Canada, Environment Canada, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and the MB Clean Environment Commission.

Hog Watch Manitoba decries $2.2 million government subsidies to Topigs Norsvin - a foreign company, despite community concerns and opposition.

Winnipeg (December 2, 2021) – Hog Watch Manitoba shares the anger and frustration felt by many Plumas area residents who fought the approval of two large hog facilities in their municipality this past summer. Not only are they angered by the decision to go ahead with these two huge barns in the face of so much local opposition but now to find that their tax dollars are going to pay for it, is outrageous.  

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.

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Superbug fears as British supermarket pig farms escalate use of antibiotics

THE BUREAU OF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM

Hog producers on the Canadian prairies (AB,SK & MB) were feeding more antibiotics to their herds in 2018 than 2017. (Source - CIPARS)

The use of certain antibiotics deemed critical to human health has surged on British pig farms supplying major supermarkets, prompting fresh concerns about the rise of antibiotic-resistant superbugs. Story here.

RELATED:

WILL THE WORLD’S ADDICTION TO INDUSTRIAL LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION BRING AN END TO THE AGE OF THE “MIRACLE DRUG?”

THREE WEBINARS THAT SPEAK THE TRUTH ABOUT MANITOBA'S HOG INDUSTRY

PRODUCED  BY HOG WATCH MANITOBA

1. Learn about the impending disaster of antibiotic resistance. 
2. The heartbreak of having a factory barn as a neighbour. 
3. And the explosion of toxic algae in our lakes. 

JUST CLICK HERE AND FOLLOW THE LINKS.

APPEARING TODAY IN A JOINT ISSUE OF THE ROBLIN REVIEW AND RUSSELL BANNER.

Ag-gag laws make matters worse for hogs

By: Vicki Burns and Brittany Semeniuk

Winnipeg Free Press - OPINION

Sows confined to steel "gestation crates," a common practise in the industry.

"Ag-gag" legislation is silently sweeping across the nation, and both Hog Watch Manitoba and the Winnipeg Humane Society have serious concerns. The term "ag-gag" refers to any piece of legislation which stifles the ability of concerned civilians to document and report animal cruelty and abuse inflicted upon farm animals.

On March 10, the Manitoba government publicly released Bill 62 and Bill 63, which seek to make it illegal for Manitobans to not only document farm animals during transportation, but to bear witness to all livestock (including horses) in transport trucks, production facilities and slaughterhouses.

Factory-style hog barns that are dominating the hog industry now are a far cry from the family farms that many of the public still envision. The pigs are never outside, but are constantly confined in large facilities with slatted floors, through which their urine and feces fall to pits below. The toxic fumes, ammonia and hydrogen sulphide emanating from the pits will suffocate the animals within a couple of hours if the ventilation systems fail.

The imminent danger of ag-gag legislation being passed in this province means these Manitoban pigs will have no one advocating for their welfare. There will be no way for Canadian consumers to know of the inhumane conditions these pigs endure. Instead, the general public will be at the mercy of the industry’s secretive treatment of farm animals.

In addition to the above legislation, the two groups have learned that Canadian Hog Producers plan to delay the deadline for getting rid of gestation stalls in hog barns. The industry deems gestation stalls as a completely humane and acceptable way to confine sows, even though the animals are so severely restricted that they can take only a step or two forward or backward.

According to the Code of Practice for Pigs, hog producers were previously mandated to replace their intensive confinement systems (gestation stalls) with open housing systems by 2024. This agreement was reached in 2014, which will have given producers 10 years to make this change. However, this deadline is now at risk of being extended to 2029, allowing sows to remain in the cruel, restrictive gestation crates for an additional five years.

Gestation stalls are one of the worst examples of the industrialization of animal agriculture. They are metal crates whose dimensions are two metres by 0.6 metres, in which the female pigs (sows) are housed from the age of six months until they are culled at around two years of age. The sows are only moved out of those stalls a few days before they give birth, at which point they are transferred to farrowing stalls that have the same size restrictions for the sow, but have some room around the edges for the piglets to move around.

Sows spend their entire lives having to eat, sleep and relieve themselves in the same mind-numbing tiny space, with no ability to turn around or even walk.

The use of these stalls is not only inhumane, but contributes to the concentration of thousands of animals in small spaces producing vast amounts of manure that is then applied to nearby land. Manitoba claims the dubious distinction of having the highest number of pigs per farm, 5,563 — more than double the next highest in Quebec, at 2,350.

Many other countries around the world have already stopped the use of gestation stalls, including the EU, the UK and Australia. It is long past time for Canada to follow suit and stop this inhumane practice, and for Canadians to vehemently oppose ag-gag legislation within Manitoba.

The Winnipeg Humane Society and Hog Watch Manitoba urge supporters to contact their MLAs and demand that they oppose the proposed ag-gag legislation becoming law in Manitoba.

Vicki Burns is a member of the Hog Watch Manitoba steering committee and Brittany Semeniuk is an animal welfare consultant with the Winnipeg Humane Society.

Do ethics matter? Apparently, in the murky world of industrial livestock, not so much...

What makes our industrial livestock sector tick? A sincere desire to feed a hungry world? A commitment to do so in a way that doesn't damage Earth's delicate life support systems? A devotion to the humane treatment of animals? An innate duty to produce a product that's safe for all of us to eat? Or are there darker forces at play?

by Larry Powell

Photo credit - FAO

Flying in the face of warnings from the world’s top medical authorities, intensive livestock producers, from Manitoba to Manchuria, continue to give enormous amounts of antibiotics to their herds.

This overuse (sometimes in humans, but overwhelmingly in animals raised for food) is contributing to the growth of “antimicrobial resistance” or AMR. These are “superbugs” which can no longer be controlled by the best, front-line antibiotics we can throw at them. 

Many of these “miracle drugs,” are critical in the treatment of deadly human infections. Few, if any alternatives are available. And, partly because hardly any new ones are being produced, AMR is now widely  recognized as a world health crisis.

Thousands of Canadians are already dying each year as a direct result of AMR. And, if nothing is done (and nothing is), hundreds of thousands of citizens of this country, and tens of millions worldwide, will succumb by mid-century. This grim expectation has prompted some observers to call AMR, “the other pandemic.” 

So why does this industry press ahead with such outrageous behaviour? 

Is it for the benefit of their customers, who buy and eat the meat produced in these factories? Hardly. It's so they can fatten their animals up faster, ward off disease and keep them alive long enough to reach market weight, be slaughtered and find their way onto our dinner plates. 

Is this supermarket meat cheaper than that produced in organic, free-range or "re-generative" operations?

Of course not! After taking into account the lower price you may pay at the counter, just think about the frequency with which these industrial producers are at the public trough, sopping up taxpayer subsidies. 

Not to mention the terrible price we are all paying for the environmental degradation they cause. 

Sadly, the "Progressive" Conservative Government of Brian Pallister in the Canadian province of Manitoba, is now firmly ensconced, not as a fair-minded regulator, enforcing enlightened rules that actually protect you and me from the excesses of this industry, but as its enabler. Under the preposterous guise of “reducing red tape,” it's been busily scrapping those regulations so that commerce can have its way. 

Never mind that many rural Manitobans (“real farmers,” critics might  say) simply don't want giant hog factories on their doorsteps. Yet, they're having their wishes - and those of their duly elected local councils - overturned by "laissez-faire," anti-democratic, disaster-capitalists who occupy the halls of power in Winnipeg.  

 

Meanwhile, Canada's swine producers are on the verge of breaking a long-standing promise to stop using “gestation crates” by 2024 - three years from now. These steel “torture chambers” have, since the dawn of the factory farm, confined pregnant sows to such tiny quarters they’re unable to fulfill normal instincts to forage or explore and often go mad. 

In 2014, “The National Farm Animal Care Council” proclaimed, giving more freedom to the animals than the crates provide, actually made scientific sense. But, as the dollar cost of doing away with them dawned on the industry, no longer is it either sensible or scientific. So millions of helpless animals will have to wait, not four, but eight more years before they might see even a modicum of relief from a miserable existence - and even then, only if the industry keeps its promise this time! 

Meanwhile, the Pallister government will soon pass laws making it illegal for whistleblowers to see first hand what happens behind the walls of “Big Pig Inc.” It's all under the preposterous guise of protecting these “farms” from diseases which protesters - who might want to expose the transgressions documented here - might “track in” on their boots! So, in an effort to make this all go away, the Government is rushing to impose Draconian rules to shield the industry from any pesky revelations which might embarrass them. 

Because of their crowded, intensive and confined nature, factory barns themselves are already “petrie dishes” (aka “the cruise ships of the terrestrial world”) for a plethora of animal diseases. This legislation is nothing but a rush by this government (probably at the behest of industry) to mimic repressive “ag-gag” laws elsewhere. These have proven to be both an affront to democracy and an assault on freedom of the press.

Then there’s “CP Foods” (CPF), the biggest conglomerate of its kind you’ve never heard of. It took over controlling interest in HyLife a couple of years ago. HyLife is that made-in-Manitoba company which is now Canada’s largest pork-processor. 

Six years ago, the Guardian revealed that CPF (A Thai-based company), was buying fishmeal from suppliers who either owned, operated or bought from Asian fishing boats manned by slaves. 

Several slaves who escaped told the newspaper tales of being beaten, tortured, drugged and starved, sometimes for years.They had also witnessed many of their comrades being executed and dumped at sea. One was reportedly tied to four boats and torn apart, limb-from-limb. 

Incredibly, CP Foods admitted that slave labour was part of its supply chain!

Will these new corporate citizens now in our midst be "greasing the wheels" of government with hefty donations to the Conservative Party of Manitoba, as three founders of HyLife were doing for many years before?

Stay tuned!

And surely these new players on the block will feel entitled to the same kind of generous subsidies the Government has been bestowing  on the rest of the industry for so long - from the pockets of hard-working Manitobans, of course!

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WHAT'S IN A PROMISE? The end of gestation crates in Canada was scheduled for 2024. Now, it’s 2029.

Factory Farm Collective   

A sow in a steel crate. If pigs could talk.

In 2014, the National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC) updated their industry guidelines for pig welfare and recommended that the pork industry end the use of gestation crates (or sow stalls) by 2024. This statement is taken from NFACC’s website under the heading, What The Science Says: Here.

RELATED:

Manitoba hog farmers pledge sow stall phase-out. 

Eating the Earth

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

Cattle in the Amazon. 

How industrial food is devastating the planet and driving climate change.

Hog Watch Manitoba's Call to Action For A Just Green Recovery

Smaller is Smarter; Farms not Factories

Hog Watch Manitoba is a non-profit organization, a coalition of environmentalists, farmers, friends of animals, social justice advocates, trade unions and scientists. We are promoting a hog industry in Manitoba that is ethically, environmentally and economically sustainable.

There are many concerns about threats to the environment, inhumane conditions for the animals and unsustainable economics that have lead us to form Hog Watch Manitoba and to advocate for an alternative model for the hog industry.

The Covid19 pandemic has highlighted the lack of resiliency in Canada’s food system with the closure of several large scale slaughter plants due to outbreaks of Covid19 in the plants. The centralization of slaughter plants 3 decades ago has led to a loss of ability to ensure food sovereignty in each province as well as leaving farmers with no options where to take their animals for processing. The closure of most of the smaller plants and local abattoirs in the country in favour of the few large transnational corporate plants, took away the possibility of providing local markets with local products from local farms. The majority of family farms couldn’t survive as the move to produce more animals for less money took over. Producers are now paid significantly less per animal than they were paid 3 decades ago, when adjusted for inflation. The move to bigger farms with thousands of animals in each building has led to increased animal welfare concerns, greater environmental threats from amounts of manure produced, and unsafe working conditions for humans in the barns due to toxic air quality.

Hog Watch Manitoba is calling for the following in pursuit of a just, green recovery from the Covid19 crisis.

·    We support the establishment of several smaller slaughterhouses in each province that will allow the processing of local animals from local farms to meet local market demand. Regulations for these provincially inspected plants need to change to allow them to sell product to local stores. The workers in these plants must be paid a decent living wage and conditions in the plants need to be safe with slower line speeds.

·    We support alternative housing systems for pigs that includes family group housing for breeding sows and straw-based housing for all pigs.

·    We are calling for the phase-out, over the next decade, of all liquid manure systems. In the interim all liquid manure operations should immediately take the following steps:

1.have groundwater monitoring wells installed

2.treat the liquid waste through environmentally acceptable processes to kill off unwanted pathogens

3.phase out the use of sub-therapeutic antibiotics

·    We support the family farm and feel that the true family farm is one in which the family are engaged in the day to day labour and management of the farm and reside on the property. As a necessary component of promoting the family farm, we are calling for the reinstatement of single desk selling of hogs which provides equity, economic bargaining power and price transparency.

·    We believe that all workers, including agricultural workers, should be protected by labour legislation such as the Employment Standards Code.

RELATED:

End to slaughterhouses would benefit workers, consumers — but it's unlikely even COVID-19 will force change. CBC News.

Manitoba's Decker Hutterite Colony says, several dead hogs spotted recently on a public roadway, nearby, died of natural causes.

by Larry Powell

Hog carcasses in two dumpsters on a side road near the
Decker Colony, northwest of Brandon, Apr. 24th.

I spotted these carcasses on April 24th.

My initial attempts to phone the colony about this (then accessible by appointment only due to Covid-19), failed. Today, the Colony's Barn Manager, David Waldner, called me back (May 6th). He says the hogs died of natural causes, not disease. In his words, "Hogs die." Sometimes one gets a broken leg, for example, and has to be put down. But most of the animals in the dumpsters, were what he calls "standard mortalities," not the result of disease.

He says the company which picks up the carcasses, usually comes about once a week. But, due to mechanical issues, it was delayed. As a result, they sat there for longer than normal. Because of that, he explains, the bodies were bloated. And this likely makes it appear as if there are more than the 20 which he estimates were in the dumpsters.

Waldner says he "absolutely shares concerns" others have for the welfare of animals. He adds, the Colony had a veterinarian visit their facilities in the past month or two. 

The Decker Colony. (All photos by PinP.)

He says the Colony houses from eight to nine thousand hogs at the moment.

Waldner rejects speculation from critics that the crowded conditions used in "intensive livestock operations," like his, may have contributed to the mortalities.

And he doesn't believe other ways of raising animals, would be feasible. He says letting animals run loose, "free-range" comes with its own set of problems, including the weather and the risk of them catching disease from other sources.

Waldner says Decker Colony ships its live hogs to the Maple Leaf slaughterhouse in Brandon. The dead-stock, such as the ones shown here, goes to a rendering plant in Winnipeg.

Meanwhile, a long-time critic of the industry in Manitoba, John Fefchak, brought this story to the attention of the Government of Manitoba. The Auditor-General has responded, saying, it will be looked into. 

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Some Canadian hog producers are euthanizing their own pigs because Covid-19 has rendered them almost worthless. Is it happening in Manitoba, too?

by Larry Powell

These carcasses were spotted on a side road not far
from the Decker Hutterite Colony.

According to the farm newspaper, the Western Producer, some Canadian producers are killing their own hog stocks and disposing of them, without putting them on the market.  Many meat-plant workers have been infected with Covid-19 and several packing plants in Canada and the U.S. have closed, as a result. Packers are therefore not accepting as many hogs as before and supplies are backing up throughout the production chain.Piglets normally raised in Canada and sold to finishing operations in the 'States are said to be worthless.

Photos by PinP.

News reports suggest, only animals in eastern Canada are known to have been euthanized, so far. 

However, I spotted and photographed two large dumpsters filled with the carcasses of mature hogs two days ago (see above). They were near the Decker Hutterite Colony in southwestern Manitoba, site of a major hog producing operation. However, it isn't known if the animals were euthanized because of Covid-19, or died of other causes. My calls to the colony have gone unanswered. 

This sign is now posted at the entrance to the
Decker colony. Photos by PinP.

Janine Gibson of HogWatch Manitoba, tells PinP, it's most likely the animals died "from the unnatural confinement and its inappropriate density. Also pick-up for disposal may be behind, so the carcass numbers are higher. I do sadly believe, some may choose to euthanize rather than continue to lose money feeding hogs they cannot sell." 

HogWatch is a citizens' group which keeps a critical eye on the industry in the province.

The Chair of the Canadian Pork Council, Rick Bergmann told a news conference, producers are losing hundreds of millions of dollars because of the Covid crisis. Calling federal assistance to business, "totally inadequate," the industry is asking Ottawa for an immediate cash payment of $20 per hog. 

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Please also read:

"In Hogs We Trust" Part 11  

a critique of Manitoba's runaway pork industry.

The Price We Pay For Corporate Hog$

Lethal algae blooms – an ecosystem out of balance

-->

The Guardian

Toxic formations across the US and the Baltic are part of a worrying trend linked to the climate crisis and farming methods Story here.

Lk. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, with Reindeer Is. in the lower right.
Photo credit - European Space Agency.

Mekong Turns from Brown to Blue-Green

In late 2019, the river started to turn colours due 

to a reduced sediment load and algae blooms.

NASA Earth Observatory.

RELATED:

IN HOGS WE TRUST - Part 1V 

"The environmental costs of intensive livestock operations.".

Manitoba taxpayers paid out almost $900 thousand to help counter a deadly hog disease in this province. A PinP exclusive.

by Larry Powell

It cost the Manitoba treasury $871,847.26  to help hog producers battle “Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea,” (PED) since the killer virus invaded many barns in the southeast in the spring of 2017. But even with authorities warning that PED has now spread further west and north than ever before, and could return to the same high levels as it did in 2017, the provincial government claims it still doesn’t know how many piglets have died in the outbreak. (PED causes significant deaths only in animals in their first few days of life.)

Photo credit - Manitoba Pork.

*The Department of Agriculture tells PinP, "With respect to the number of piglet mortalities, this is personal business information and mortalities are not required to be reported for any livestock species.”

Yet the government’s own “Livestock Manure and Mortalities Management Regulations” seem to suggest otherwise. They say, when a producer has more animals dying than he/she can routinely dispose of (as was almost certainly the case here), “the operator shall, without delay, provide an environment officer with any information about the situation that the officer requests.” 

So, what does this mean? The industry has been reporting the numbers, and the government is lying? Or, has the industry not been reporting them and, by so doing, breaking the law by ignoring the regulations? Or, has the government simply not been asking these question? Any one of these scenarios surely display serious neglect on someone's part!

A year or so after the initial outbreak, industry officials were describing how they got “walloped” by it, how desperate efforts to fight it were causing symptoms in some owners and barn workers similar to PTSD, and describing it as "the largest animal disease outbreak in the province in 30 years."

Yet the closest estimate to the number of mortalities on the public record appears in the online publication “Pig Progress” in March of 2018. A swine specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, Robyn Harte, is quoted as saying, at the peak of the outbreak, “There were over one million pigs under surveillance.” She does not elaborate. 

Several other requests I’ve made to the industry group, Manitoba Pork for a figure on mortalities, have gone unanswered.

Another partial hint on the death toll came in June of 2017. The President of Hylife, a major, Manitoba-based producer and pork processor, was appearing before the Commons Agriculture Committee. Claude Vielfaure testified, "As of yesterday, we believe that we've lost 21,000 pigs already to PED." 

The cost to the public treasury comes in because the government helps industry manage the disease by paying for some veterinary fees, diagnostic services, lab supplies and staff expenses. 

Experts have warned for years that Intensive Livestock Operations, like the ones in Manitoba, where large numbers of animals are housed in confined spaces, contribute to disease outbreaks. Late in 2017, well after the initial outbreak, the provincial government relaxed regulations to allow for industry expansion.

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**I initially asked the Government for this information in an e-mail. But it only responded after I launched a formal inquiry under “FIPPA,” the Freedom of Information and Personal Privacy Act. 

*

**

Hogs and Water. A private citizen appeals to the Premier of Manitoba.

Dear Premier Brian Pallister,

It’s time for you and your government to stop playing Russian Roulette with the health of our waterways. Mr. Premier, you need to implement the “precautionary principle” and immediately stop the unbridled expansion of factory pig barns in the province. Scores of huge new barns have been going up - often in the face of opposition from nearby residents - for well over a year now, ever since your government slashed important environmental, health and safety regulations in order to make it happen. 

Lake Winnipeg, transformed into the bright, blue-green hue of poisonous algae.
Photo by European Space Agency.

There’s already plenty of both “circumstantial,” and scientific evidence that hog waste has played a role in reducing Lake Winnipeg to a mucky mess which can be seen from space (above).

Pigs have outnumbered people by the millions in our province for many years now. And that imbalance will only be widening with industry expansion. Hogs produce much more waste than humans. And, except for accidental releases, human sewage is treated while hog slurry - spread on vast areas of food crops as a fertilizer - is not.

And, instead of acting in the financial interests of foreign corporations, which now control Manitoba’s slaughtering facilities, your government should be thinking instead of your own citizens. 

For example, the ability of many cottage communities along the south basin to enjoy their properties this summer has been ruined by a dramatic buildup of poisonous algae which has collected along their beaches and seriously sickened some of their pets who drank the water. Some cottagers say, it’s the worst they’ve ever seen.

Could the reason your government has conducted no proper water testing be, it’ll show just how much the industry is contributing to the pollution? So, why not do the testing, gather the scientific data which has been lacking so far, and settle the issue, once and for all?

I believe many Manitobans share these concerns. If you do, please contact your local MLAs and tell them so.

Sincerely,
Larry Powell
Shoal Lake MB

Hog Watch Manitoba Warns Current Hog Industry Expansion Could Further Harm Lake Winnipeg

(Winnipeg –August 19, 2019) Hog Watch Manitoba(HWM) is warning the public that further increase in the number of pigs raised in Manitoba could bring even greater blue-green algae blooms to Lake Winnipeg and other Manitoba lakes. This summer the extent of the algae blooms in the south basin of Lake Winnipeg is devastating to many cottage communities, including Victoria Beach, Grand Beach and Lester Beach. The current Conservative government in Manitoba has introduced several measures to try to encourage the development of more industrial size hog barns. They ended the moratorium on hog barn development which had been instituted by the former provincial government. They brought in the Red Tape Reduction Bill, removing the prohibition on winter spreading of manure from legislation. Subsequently they brought in Bill 19 which aims to limit local control over new hog barn development.

HWM has requested that the government collect data to determine how much phosphorus is running off fields that have been fertilized with hog manure. Phosphorus is the key element that feeds the growth of blue-green algae and it is present in animal manure, human sewage and chemical fertilizers. Currently there is no actual data on how much phosphorus is coming from hog lagoons and spread fields and HWM believes that this data should be collected so evidence-based decisions can be made. “ We have the means to do this water sampling and data collection”, says Vicki Burns, Hog Watch Manitoba Steering Committee, “so why are we not being scientific about measuring and then controlling the amount of phosphorus we are allowing on our soils that is running off into our waters?”

According to Manitoba Pork there were 7.7 million pigs marketed in 2018 in Manitoba, compared to 780,000 back in 1975. Agriculture Minister Ralph Eichler has stated the government’s intention to see that number grow to 10 million each year. “This unlimited expansion of the industrial style hog industry has tremendous costs to our lake waters and the health of humans living in proximity to the hydrogen sulphide emissions from hog lagoons” says Janine Gibson, Hog Watch Member and Organic Agricultural Consultant and Inspector.

HWM is calling for data collection on run-off from hog farms before more industrial hog barns are allowed. The costs of polluting our lakes is too high a price to pay.

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For more information contact:

Vicki Burns – 204-489-3852 – vickiburns@mts.net

Janine Gibson – 204-557-2529 - creativehealthconsulting@gmail.com

Manitoba's "Protein Advantage"

A few months ago, the Government of Manitoba invited input from the public on a proposal to expand production of protein-rich food, whether plant or animal-based, in this province. It claims, meeting this fast-growing global demand offers much bigger opportunities than those which have existed before, for both farmers and investors. The province has embarked on a massive expansion of its industrial pork industry by relaxing both health and environmental regulations and obviously hopes through this new initiative,  to make it even bigger.

In this in-depth article, long-time farm activist and livestock producer, Ruth Pryzer, offers many valuable insights into why this all needs to be taken with several grains of salt.

PinP

Farm Country: Don’t Get Fooled Again

By Cherie Mortice - Common Dreams.

Smithfield Food's pig-breeding facility, Virginia. Sows in cruel
gestation crates. Photo by US Humane Society.

Big ag companies killed family farms and polluted our water, while politicians blamed our immigrant neighbours. Let’s not turn on each other again. Story here