Don Walters recalls the anxiety that emerged a few years ago when property owners at Good Spirit Lake learned that a series of hog barns were to be built at the nearby community of Rama, in east-central Saskatchewan.
Like other residents who owned cottages at the popular retreat, Walters had heard stories about the foul odours, manure and water quality problems commonly associated with intensive hog production.
When rumours circulated that the creek feeding Good Spirit Lake could be contaminated, Walters, a CTV account executive from Yorkton, Sask., sat up and took notice.
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“We got a little bit excited and we proceeded to find out what was happening and what could happen if the barns were built.”
Today, the completed barns, six in total, produce about 120,000 market hogs annually.
Walters, now retired, has sold his cottage but still makes regular trips to the Rama area to monitor the environmental impact of the hog barns.
And after observing the fallout for more than four years, he is convinced the modern hog industry isn’t necessarily the environmental offender its opponents make it out to be.
“At the time I was worried, with all the doom and gloom that was being presented, that we were going to have a problem,” said Walters, chair of the Spirit Creek Watershed Monitoring Committee.
“But after four years, we’re finding that things aren’t as bad as we thought they were going to be. I think we need some opposition to keep the industry on track. But there’s also a lot of untruths out there.”
The monitoring committee is a provincially sanctioned group established at the request of property owners.
With the help of independent experts, it monitors air quality, soil nutrient levels, water quality and odour in the Spirit Creek watershed area.
The committee has played a pivotal role in balancing the environmental concerns of property owners with the interests of the barn’s main stakeholder, Big Sky Farms, said Walters.
But that co-operation is rare among allies and enemies of intensive hog production.
In communities across Western Canada, battle lines are being drawn between industry proponents and those committed to stifling its expansion.
Opponents argue that corporate hog barns pollute the air, contaminate water supplies and cause a variety of other problems ranging from decreased property values to food safety issues.
Industry proponents argue that their detractors spread rumours and ignore facts. In addition, the expansion of intensive livestock production has exposed a raw nerve among farm families who equate corporate farming to a loss of control over rural resources and a threat to their way of life.
“Every community is a bit different but the fundamental issue is always the same,” said John Ikerd, an agricultural economist with the University of Missouri. “Some people in these communities expect to benefit economically by adopting an industrial model of livestock production while others expect to suffer the inherently negative consequences of agricultural industrialization.
“Perhaps no other issue has so split the fabric of rural communities as when those who benefit economically confront those whose quality of life is diminished, and the rest of the community is asked to choose sides.”
