Complaints about smelly pig manure and water contamination may be a blessing in disguise for pork producers.
Doug Hall, chair of the land-use committee for the Alberta Pork Producers Development Corporation, said he used to resent the rocks thrown against his industry. Now he says public complaints have jolted producers into developing a clean industry as hog barn expansion spreads across the Prairies.
“We’re going to have our act cleaned up and the others are going to have to follow,” he said from his Airdrie farm, just north of Calgary.
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The public is turning up the heat on intensive livestock operations and such pressure is forcing farmers to answer concerns about odor, pollution and public health.
“We’re still on the burner. Some may be on the back burner but I know we’re all sitting on the stove together,” he said.
As a commodity group, pork producers recognize there are serious environmental concerns and have moved the issue to the top of their agenda, he said. They have started education programs about safe manure handling for producers and the public.
In the past, agriculture was left to carry on farming without public interference. Municipalities rely on a provincial code of practice that outlines generally accepted manure handling and building requirements. There is growing consensus that the code needs to be revised even though it was only released in 1995.
“Generally accepted farm practice that was used yesterday is not viewed in the same light today,” said Hall.
With the wall of complaints looming before the industry, he has witnessed some real changes among producers because they have to live with the aroma of pig manure too.
“I think it’s going to be the peer producer examples that’s going to lead the way,” he said.
On his farm, depending on soil types, Hall injects manure 15-20 centimetres below the soil surface and he covers his sewage pits.
To show the public how a modern hog farm is managed, he opens his operation regularly to farm tours.
