The approval of a large hog processing plant in Lethbridge, Alta. has added to concerns about the growing livestock industry in southern Alberta.
Complaints about odor and worries over feedlot runoff into water supplies could be just the tip of the manure pile as far as some residents are concerned.
Ed Ryan, a retired school teacher who lives near Lethbridge, is one of the concerned citizens. He doesn’t know if he is part of a cranky minority or if there is widespread concern over the proliferation of livestock expansion in the province.
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He became alarmed when the city welcomed a Taiwanese hog processing plant owned by Yuan Yi Agricultural Enterprise Co.
Ryan reasons if the company kills 1,500 hogs per day it will need more pigs than the south can provide. That means hog farm expansion.
The county of Lethbridge is already the epicentre for intensive livestock in Canada. The county is home to 116 beef feedlots, 62 dairies, 63 hog operations and 17 poultry farms.
Ryan is concerned about water quality, air pollution, dust, flies and the environmental effects of adding more intensive livestock farms to an already densely populated area.
“This large a concentration of animals leads to enormous piles of manure that makes its way into the Oldman River, the irrigation canals and the waterways of southern Alberta,” said Ryan.
He feels people have to start saying no to more intensive livestock operations in the area.
“One benefit that might arise from this controversy is that people become more sensitized to the hazards,” said Ryan.
Fred Schuld, of Alberta Agriculture, says by 1999 the province anticipates an additional 1.5 million market hogs.
“If all the plans people are talking about come to fruition we are talking about a 50 percent increase,” said Schuld.
In the May 1996 farm census there were 4,173 piggeries in the province. Last year, Alberta slaughtered 2.8 million hogs.
