PLANET IN PERIL

by Larry Powell (Updated - Mar. 5th, 2021) A Canadian Pork Council photo. In 2019, an elite panel of experts - The Council of Canadian Academies -  confirmed that thousands of Canadians were already dying each year of  "antimicrobial resistance (AMR)." And, with that resistance still growing, up to 400 thousand will likely die  of it  by mid-century. It calls the problem,   “a serious existential threat.”  And, if anyone needs more convincing, here's how Canada's own Chief Public Health Officer puts it.  " Left unchecked, there's risk of losing these medications as an essential life-saving treatment. It's estimated that antibiotic-resistant infections could cause 10 million deaths a year, globally by 2050. This is more than the current annual worldwide deaths from cancer." AMR happens when  too many antibiotics are given (when they're not needed), not only to people, but mostly to livestock (domestic animals raised for food), like cattle, pigs

RELATED: "In Hogs We Trust" Part 1  Could the Manitoba government’s return to a deregulated hog industry actually contribute to a world health crisis?

CBC News Superbugs are likely to kill nearly 400,000 Canadians and cost the economy about $400 billion in gross domestic product over the next 30 years, warns a landmark report.    Story here. A Canstock photo image. PinP: As is too often the case, a big piece of the information puzzle is left out of stories such as this. Antibiotics have been overused almost everywhere in the world for a long time, often to raise animals for food. Among other things, it makes them grow faster and fattens them up to fetch a better price at market time. Yet governments forge ahead, like Manitoba's is doing, to expand the very style of livestock production that spawns such problems.  Please read: "In Hogs We Trust." Part 1 . Could the Manitoba government’s return to a deregulated hog industry actually contribute to a world health crisIs?

The Guardian Industrial farms are spreading across Europe. Greenpeace campaigners went to talk to the people who live close by.Warning: readers may find some of the images upsetting. Story here. Dead hogs in a dumpster at a Manitoba factory barn, awaiting removal to an unknown location. A PinP photo. Please also read - "In Hogs We Trust."   A critique of Manitoba’s runaway hog industry. Part 1 - Antibiotic Overuse. Part 11 - The price we pay for corporate pig$. Part 111 - From Malaysia to Manitoba - the global magnitude of livestock diseases. Part 1V - The health and environmental costs of an expanded hog industry. Part V - What’s behind Manitoba’s drive to expand?  

Canadian Science Publishing It turns out antibiotic-resistant bacteria are far more ubiquitous than previously thought. A new study published in the  Canadian Journal of Microbiology  tested the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in four aquatic environments in southern Ontario—and found them everywhere. Story here. RELATED:  " In Hogs We Trust" -   Part 1 - Antibiotic Overuse.

TRUTHOUT The polar opposite of a factory farm. A pig herder in Romania. Photo by  PetrS. Hog waste can contain potentially dangerous pathogens, pharmaceuticals and chemicals.  Story here. RELATED:                                                     "In Hogs We Trust."   A critique of Manitoba’s “runaway” hog industry. By Larry Powell. Part 1 - Antibiotic Overuse. Part 11 - The price we pay for corporate pig$.   Part 111 - From Malaysia to Manitoba - the global magnitude of livestock diseases. Part 1V - The health and environmental costs of an expanded hog industry. Part V - What’s behind Manitoba’s drive to expand?  

by Larry Powell What the fuss is all about. A PinP photo. The mayor of the RM of Yellowhead, Don Yanick is denying yesterday's headline story in the local newspaper, Crossroads This Week,  (see CTW story, below). It reads,  "Hog Barn Found to be Legal."  First of all, says Yanick, Council will not be declaring the operation "legal," even if an inspection clears the owner. (It will simply be allowed to proceed.) So, the bottom line is, the matter is still pending and will be discussed again at the next council meeting on Oct. 23rd. The building in question is a "finisher barn," where mature hogs are prepared for market. It's located in the eastern part of the RM, near the Village of Strathclair.  It became controversial when the citizens' group, Hogwatch Manitoba, brought a formal complaint in September to the Yellowhead council. The complaint alleged the owner, Wim Verbruggen, had built a larger barn than stated in his original ap

Read an alternative version here.  Also.... "In Hogs We Trust."   A critique of Manitoba’s “runaway” hog industry. Part 1 - Antibiotic Overuse. Part 11 - The price we pay for corporate pig$.   Part 111 - From Malaysia to Manitoba - the global magnitude of livestock diseases. Part 1V - The health and environmental costs of an expanded hog industry. Part V - What’s behind Manitoba’s drive to expand?  

by Larry Powell Manitoba's  Premier, Brian Pallister has announced  another assistance package   to Hylife Foods of more than $11 m over the next several year.  (HyLife is now Canada's biggest pork processor.) Some $9.5m will come from the province, the rest from Ottawa. It will help the company pay for a pricey expansion of its killing plant in Neepawa and a new feed mill in the southwest. Last November, I warned in a blog-post here , that Manitoba taxpayers had better be prepared to "dig deeper." Why? Because Pallister's Conservatives had just begun to deregulate this province's corporate hog sector, so it could expand. And, expand, it has! Countless new barns are going up, so that millions more animals can be raised and slaughtered here: And all with fewer regulations than ever to control pollution, disease or catastrophic barn fires.  Given past history, my article reasoned, more "corporate welfare" was surely in the wind. It do

Journal Club A microbiologist examines the growth of a bacterial culture.  A U.S. Food & Drug Administration photo.  Antimicrobial resistance is not only a major public health threat, but also an economic one, according to researchers at The World Bank. Their new study, published in the journal  World Development , suggests that an increase in drug-resistant microbes could cause millions more people to fall into extreme poverty within the next few decades. “Nobody has estimated the poverty effects before,” says study author Karen Thierfelder, an economics professor at the U.S. Naval Academy and consultant for The World Bank. “We’d like to make more people aware of the problem.” More here. Also Read:  "In Hogs We Trust."   A critique of Manitoba’s “runaway” hog industry. Part 1 - Antibiotic Overuse.

THE CONVERSATION A Manitoba animal factory. Photo credit - Mercy for Animals, Canada. As U.S. livestock farming becomes more industrial, it is changing rural life.  More here. RELATED: "In Hogs We Trust."   A critique of Manitoba’s runaway hog industry. Part 1 - Antibiotic Overuse. Part 11 - The price we pay for corporate pig$.   Part 111 - The magnitude of animal diseases, worldwide. Part 1V - The health and environmental costs of an expanded hog industry. Part V - Who’s behind Manitoba’s drive to expand? Find the answers here!

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism Babies are dying in their thousands in Malawi because drugs to treat common infections no longer work. We went to investigate.  Related: In Hogs We Trust - Part 1 - Antibiotic Overuse.