PLANET IN PERIL

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.

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$

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

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

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