Time to speak out about the hog industry
Re: “Manitoba only has 566 hog farms, but those operations have a massive impact on the economy,” from a story on page 7 of the Aug. 10 Western Producer.
That may be so, but it also has a massive impact on the environment and water sources, including Lake Winnipeg.
As a letter writer, I will speak out about the hog industry and ask, “what is the future for Manitoba, just a toilet for the industrial hog industry?”
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Bad ideas and poor operating principles are very costly.
The lessons are: we must learn from (former Manitoba premier Gary) Filmon’s Conservatives’ and the NDP government’s past mistakes.
Is this pointless rhetoric from a long time ago? Hardly. We should all benefit and learn from the past. Who initiated and spread out the welcome mat?
The Filmon regime of government must bear that imprudent act alone, for it was done without benefit of any studies whatsoever and literally double-crossed every farmer who used to raise hogs for a living and sale.
Filmon also eliminated the competitive single desk selling as he promised Maple Leaf Foods president Michael McCain. Our NDP government, however, was not virtuous in this business of meat for export for they also allowed and encouraged the rampant growth of producing hogs to continue, even though, when in opposition, they openly deplored the Industry coming to Manitoba.
They expressed concerns about manure pollution to our water sources. This hog industry is a meat-exporting business. Manitobans consume about six percent of their production. The rest is shipped away, leaving Manitobans and our water sources to deal with all the waste and pollution that is produced and left behind, adding just one more value-added concept, as initially proclaimed by the Filmon Conservative government.
More facts: Manitoba’s hog industry is destructive to the environment, say experts, and the return of scale mixed farming is needed to combat the influence of Industrial pig operations in the province.
You can’t raise animals in factories and be environmentally benign, says Joe Dolecki, former professor of environmental economics at Brandon University.
In industrial agriculture you have so much waste that it is impossible not to end up polluting.
Eva Pip, a former biology professor and aquatic toxicologist at the University of Winnipeg, pointed to phosphorus run-off as a main contributor to algal bloom problems in Lake Winnipeg, according to an ongoing study that she has devoted herself to for 40 years.
The economics professor also had this to say: “It would have been far less costly for taxpayers and certainly more friendly to the water sources, environment and the quality of life to the rural population to pay, yes pay, bribe money to the hog industry and say a polite, no thank you, we don’t want your business and we are paying you to stay away.”
Yes, Manitobans, if you care about our waters, Lake Winnipeg and the environment, it’s time to share your concerns and speak out about the hog industry.
John Fefchak,
Virden, Man.
