Teachers will soon have another option for school field trips now that
a proposed swine interpretive centre has been cleared for takeoff.
Wayne Vermette, a pork producer from Outlook, Sask., and chair of the
Prairie Swine Centre’s development committee, said $100,000 in
provincial government funding announced July 15 will allow the centre
to proceed.
The centre has raised $800,000 of the $1 million goal that was set when
the project was launched in May 2001.
Located at Elstow, Sask., the centre will use interactive displays and
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a viewing gallery above the barn to educate the general public about
how pigs are raised in large operations.
Saskatchewan agriculture minister Clay Serby welcomed the new facility.
“The interpretive centre will describe the science, business and human
side of pork production and will be an educational venue for discussing
the facts about raising pigs.”
He said the province produces 2.1 million hogs a year, which is
projected to climb to five million by 2005. As well, 40 percent of jobs
in the province are tied to agriculture, which Serby expects to drive
development in the coming years.
“It’s a major success story for Saskatchewan, a story that could be
told through the swine centre.”
Vermette said the interpretive centre will give visitors a first-hand
look at modern pig production that isn’t offered anywhere else, without
jeopardizing the health of animals.
He hoped it would also spur interest among youth interested in careers
in the industry.
Vermette said the hog industry is among the first to create such an
education centre, something that could become more common in the future.
