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Showing posts with the label Hogs

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

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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.  Sinc

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

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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 governmen

Superbug fears as British supermarket pig farms escalate use of antibiotics

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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

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PRODUCED  BY HOG WATCH MANITOBA Learn about the impending disaster of antibiotic resistance.  The heartbreak of having a factory barn as a neighbour.  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.

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Ag-gag laws make matters worse for hogs

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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 lar

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

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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

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

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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

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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 a

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

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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.

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

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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 oper

Lethal algae blooms – an ecosystem out of balance

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--> 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.

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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

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

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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. Hog

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 fie

Manitoba's "Protein Advantage"

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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

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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