FRIEDENSFELD, Man. – Hog producers took advantage of recent Clean Environment Commission hearings in the heart of Manitoba’s hog alley to raise their voices in defence of their industry.
But while producers from the Steinbach region made more than a dozen detailed presentations to the CEC, which the Manitoba government mandated to investigate the sustainability of the industry, an air of tiredness hung over the community hall here.
Some farmers said they had defended their operations before, believed they had been successful, then found that politicians moved again.
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“There are shelves piled high” with studies about hog farming and the environment, noted local farmer and former Canadian Foodgrains Bank chair Marg Rempel in her comments to the CEC.
Rempel sounded resigned to this present round of political hostility to her industry as she detailed her family farm’s environmental practices, describing stewardship activities that she did “long before it was a politically expedient issue.”
She said manure should be seen as a positive product, not a waste product, because it replaces fossil fuel based fertilizers. With world petroleum supplies being drained, “I doubt 40 or 50 years from today the petroleum option will be available.”
Hog barn network operator Dan Klippenstein, whose operations include 7,000 sows, said his organization goes beyond the mandated standards, but the provincial government has been complicating business with new phosphorus regulations.
“Some of the policies our government has adopted are increasing our costs,” said Klippenstein.
The phosphorus regulations hurt the environment, Klippenstein said, because he has to clear more acres of brush to spread the manure more widely.
Hog barns use less water than most of their critics think, he said, and water conservation is an important management concern for producers.
Hog industry construction and input supplier John Kroeker said his business is suffering because of the provincial government’s development moratorium.
“It’s extremely unfair to blame one producer group,” said Kroeker. “The hog industry should not be singled out.”
Kroeker said he had cut his workforce because of the slump in hog barn construction and is at only 50 percent of usual sales.
Local agricultural real estate salesman Bob Schinkel said the hog industry has improved the quality of land on which manure is applied. Rather than reducing local property values it is one of the main reasons that property prices are booming in areas with hog barns like Steinbach.
He compared that situation to one in a municipality that has virtually banned hog barn development and in which land prices are much weaker.
“The real estate agent’s car stalls out when it hits … Piney,” joked Schinkel.
Steinbach mayor Chris Goertzen said hog farming has not been controversial in his community, and the industry is less of a concern than the municipality’s own sewage lagoons.
“You hear very few complaints,” said Goertzen.
The boom of the industry in recent years has caused an influx of immigrants, from British truck drivers to Filipino hog barn workers, he said.
The three CEC commissioners questioned each presenter especially about manure management practices.
They also wondered if Steinbach’s economic success was due to the hog industry or to the growth of other employers such as Loewen Windows and Biovail.
