Hog Watch Manitoba News December 2002 |
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Manitoba
Moratorium... Further evidence prompts environmental organizations to call on Manitoba government to implement a moratorium on the expansion of the hog industry... The Manitoba government's newly released report on nutrients provides more proof that the prolific expansion of the corporate hog industry in Manitoba has to be stopped until safeguards are put into place. The Organization - A Provincial Coalition for Responsible Resource Management and Hog Watch Manitoba are introducing their petition of over 5,000 names to the Manitoba Legislative Assembly. "We have asked all three political parties to introduce this petition into legislature, but it appears that at this point in time, no one is interested in this particular issue", says Glen Koroluk, a researcher with Hog Watch Manitoba. (please refer to the next item in this list) Quebec has recently extended their moratorium a further 18 months as their government develops new laws and regulations to govern the industry. The call for a moratorium comes at a time when other agencies and organizations across the country have investigated the industrial style of pork production and have reached the same conclusion. Just recently at it's 135th annual convention, the Canadian Medical Association called on all levels of government in Canada to place a moratorium on the expansion of the hog industry until scientific data on the attendant health risks are known. Environmental Defence Canada, a national organization based out of Toronto, also released its report this fall asking for all levels of government to place tighter restrictions on this under-regulated industry. "It's Hitting the Fan - The Unchecked Growth of Factory Farms in Canada", makes numerous recommendations including placing a moratorium on the expansion of the industry. Jean-Marc Lalonde, Liberal MPP for Glengarry-Prescott-Russell, in Ontario intends to table a private member's bill that aims to give power to municipalities to refuse to grant building permits to intensive livestock operations. The Mega-Hog Farm Control Act will call for a moratorium on new and expanded operations. "The numerous calls for a moratorium gives us further evidence that this industry is expanding unchecked at phenomenal rates, said Ron Dalmyn, President of The Organization. "In the Netherlands, where I am originally from, the European Union and the Dutch Court, forced the Dutch government to pay Dutch hog farmers millions of dollars for their farms so they could relocate in Canada to pollute with impunity." It is expected that Manitoba will become Canada's leading pork producer by the end of this fiscal year, surpassing production in Ontario and Quebec. Some facts on the Manitoba hog industry 1. The government still does not know where all the hog barns and manure storage facilities are located within this province. 2. The barns are still exempt from the Environment Act and thus air emissions and temporary pit storage of manure is unregulated. 3. Hog barn workers are still exempt from the Employment Standards Code and worker's compensation is still voluntary. 4. Hog barns are still exempt from the Fire Code. 5. Manure Management Plans are not disclosed to the public. 6. Water quality data from the 100 or so operations that do have monitoring wells are not available for the public. 7. A transparent marketing system (ie, single desk marketing) has still not been re-introduced into the province so as to give producers marketing power. 8. The government still has not introduced it's Clean Water Act as promised over 3 years ago. 9. Sub-therapeutic antibiotics and hormones are still fed to hogs to promote growth. 10. Manitoba still does not have anti-corporate farming legislation. 11. Gestation crates for sows are still not being phased out. 12. Posting environmental
liability bonds are still not a requirement for 13. Untreated manure is still spread on land based on it's nitrogen content as opposed to it's phosphorus content. 14. There still isn't adequate staffing and resources within the Conservation department to properly monitor and enforce the industry. More information
on this petition can be obtained by calling: Legislative
Assembly of Manitoba Hon.
Jon Gerrard (River Heights): My personal view is that we do not at this point need such a moratorium if there is effective provincial action on an urgent basis, but that it is very important that we hear the voices of 5000 concerned Manitobans. The petition clearly shows a very great lack of trust in the actions of the present provincial government. Along with the petition, a press release raises very grave concerns about the provincial government's policies, standards and enforcement as they relate to the hog industry. These concerns need to be taken seriously. The NDP government,
for example, still has not fully implemented the Tyrchniewicz report.
The delays, the procrastination, the lack of action by the present NDP
government may lead to a situation where such a moratorium may be necessary
in the future. Action is urgently needed now, Mr. Speaker, to restore
public trust in the provincial government and to make sure that in the
future the hog industry is on a sound environmental basis and that it
is not compromised by a government which does not act when it should have. Lake
Winnipeg pollution blamed on farm runoff Pig
Farm Sparks Call for Reform; Bill would let towns block mega-farms Collective bargaining successful for hog barn workers December 4, 2002 (Regina, SK) — Western Canada’s first unionized hog-barn workers have approved a new and improved collective agreement. Grain Services Union (GSU) announced today that members of the union who work for Bear Hills Pork in Perdue and Biggar have overwhelmingly approved the settlement of their second collective agreement. The settlement was bargained on November 25 and ratified by GSU members on December 3, 2002. “Since joining GSU and becoming the first unionized group of workers in Western Canada’s industrial pork production sector, we have made the case for good jobs, decent labour standards and dignity in the workplace,” said Sherry Bellamy, president of GSU Local 1450. “This settlement was reached without a dispute. It is the new beginning of a good working relationship with Bear Hills management,” said GSU General Secretary Hugh Wagner. “And it sends a signal to all other industrial hog barn employees in Saskatchewan that joining GSU is the best way to address wages and working conditions in this expanding industry.” “This settlement also shows the value of collective bargaining and the good industrial relations climate fostered by the Saskatchewan Trade Union Act,” Wagner added. The new collective agreement provides for wage increases averaging 2.6 per cent in the first year (retroactive to May 1, 2002) and 3.4 per cent in the second year of a 30-month agreement. In addition, employees will get an employer-paid dental plan in the second year of the agreement. “A union contract
is the best way to get ahead for workers in any industry,” Wagner
said. “With their wage increases, dental plan, and annual pay increments,
GSU members working for Bear Hills Pork will realize annual improvements
in wages and benefits exceeding 6 per cent per year.” Canadian
Medical Association - Moratorium Fecal
Coliform near N.B. Hog Barn There's
Still Time to Avoid Manure Surpluses The Christian Farmers Federation
is in favour of setting limits on the size Earlier this month the CFFO policy setting board adopted this recommendation: "Ontario should add to the Provincial Policy Statement under the Planning Act a statement that allows municipalities to set limits on the size and intensity of livestock farms. Municipalities should be able to set a maximum size in the range of 400 to 600 livestock units per site and a maximum density in the range of 1.0 to 2.0 livestock units per acre depending on the environmental and cultural needs of their communities." CFFO has been in favour of caps on the size of livestock barns for quite some time, but this is the first time that the membership has agreed to specific maximums. CFFO supports municipalities having a role in establishing a cap, but rejects the idea that municipalities should be allowed to restrict livestock completely. A cap on a livestock barn should not be less than 400 livestock units. The rationale for caps is a basic stewardship principle. Raising livestock and cropping good soils have a symbiotic relationship. Both are important to sustainable agriculture. Livestock rely on and benefit from the gifts of good land. Good land benefits from livestock manures being returned to it. Livestock and land belong together. A sustainable livestock sector must be land based and a sustainable crop sector needs the soil building organic matter of livestock manures. Caps will disperse livestock across our countryside, returning nutrients in moderate amounts in many watersheds. Without concrete action permanently linking our livestock to land, Ontario risks the controversies that the Quebec livestock sector is experiencing. Quebec's Environmental Review Board has begun a year-long examination of pork production and sustainable development of the pork industry in that province. It has a mandate to look at everything: models of production, research on odour suppression, pork production's relationship to the non-farm community, impact on public health, and the role of municipalities to regulate. Quebec has been regulating its livestock sector for at least three years and brought in another set of rules just last June. Public controversy has only deepened. Why? Quebec has allowed surpluses to happen. There are manure surpluses in significant watersheds. When there is more manure than can be safely applied on land close by, we create long-term management challenges with no easy or inexpensive solutions. Now Quebec's provincial government has turned a six-week moratorium on new hog barns into an 18-month ban in more than 100 municipalities that have a manure surplus while the Environmental Review Board searches for a way forward. In Ontario there
is still time to avoid manure surpluses.
Farmscape for November 28, 2002 (Episode 1125) A just completed Prairie
Swine Centre study has shown hydrogen sulfide gas emissions within the
swine barn often reach levels that pose a substantial risk to the health
of workers. Clip-Dr. Stephane
Lemay-Prairie Swine Centre Dr. Lemay recommends
the use of H2S monitors in swine buildings to make sure workers are aware
of the levels present when manure is handled. *Farmscape is a
presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council go
to top Migrant workers pack up their dreams and come to Manitoba to take jobs on farms and at Maple Leaf's pork-processing plant, but the rules that govern them are raising the hackles of labour leaders Roberto Rocha contemplated the job offer posted in a Mexican municipal office for six months before taking the plunge. With one suitcase, the soft-spoken 20-year-old travelled from the industrial mega-city of Leon to Brandon for a coveted job at Maple Leaf's pork-processing plant. "I came simply to work," said Rocha, a former employee of a Leon tannery. "The work I did in Mexico, I don't even want to think of it any more." Now, after six weeks of English classes and on-the-job training, he's one of the fastest cutters on Maple Leaf's production line, and is teased for spending his wages on sharp new clothes, including a brown, '70s-style leather jacket. There are more than 300 Mexican workers in Manitoba, most of whom toil on vegetable farms near Portage la Prairie as part of a decades-old government guest worker program. About 45 workers, though, are working in Brandon's state-of-the-art meat-processing plant, part of a controversial program that will expand fourfold next year. Another 200 Mexican workers are expected in 2003, as the company ramps up plans to add another shift to the plant, which now employs about 1,300 production workers. The first wave of Mexican workers arrived in January. For every one hired, 25 applied to a recruitment office in Leon. Most say they would like to become Canadian citizens. Unlike many new immigrants, the Mexican workers are not left to flail around on their own as they search for apartments, apply for health cards and set up bank accounts. The company offers intensive English classes, with more courses scheduled later at the union hall. Local Catholic churches, especially St. Augustine's, are opening their doors, and a Spanish-speaking Maple Leaf staffer acts as a liaison, helping the workers get settled and find their bearings in Brandon. Plus, a second wave of workers who arrived in August got advice and even a place to stay from those on the job since January. But, labour leaders and aboriginal groups say the practice of importing labour from poor countries drags down wages and nixes a worker's right to sell his or her labour elsewhere. The temporary work visa -- one or two years -- allows its holder to work only for Maple Leaf, meaning they cannot go down the road and work for meat packer Springhill Farms in Neepawa, where wages are $2-$3 per hour more than at Maple Leaf. That circumvents basic supply and demand forces between workers and employers, said Jan Chaboyer, Brandon Labour Council president. That could be fixed if the foreign workers were simply given landed immigrant status. "We're just saying that if they're good enough to work here, they're good enough to live here," said Chaboyer. "If employers can set up shop anywhere in the world under globalization, then likewise workers should be able to move freely, too, to where the salaries are." Maple Leaf's Steve LeBlanc said the company badly wants the Mexicans to immigrate and plans are in the works to have immigration papers in place once the temporary work permits expire. He said the company is also exploring Immigration Canada's new nomination program, which allows employers to sponsor skilled labour for waiting jobs. Another criticism goes like this: If Maple Leaf can't attract workers, it should simply increase salaries, which are among the lowest for Canadian meat packers. Leah Laplante, vice-president of the Manitoba Metis Federation-Southwest Region, says Maple Leaf's wages are simply too low to recruit workers. "To move a family into Brandon for $8.65 an hour, you can't do it. You just can't do it," she said. That wage works out to less than $18,000 per year. The MMF has also placed members in jobs with Maple Leaf. Maple Leaf's human resources manager Steve LeBlanc maintains wages are not the only way to attract employees. "Companies have to be careful. Just throwing money at the problem is not a solution," said LeBlanc. "We believe we're paying a very market-competitive rate. Many industries paying very competitive rates are still having a challenge finding employees." When Maple Leaf announced it would build its $120-million plant in Brandon, well-paying jobs were anticipated. Meat packing has always been a hard job but what kept workers loyal in the past was a pretty good wage. However, Maple Leaf slashed its wages by 40 per cent prior to opening in Brandon in 1999, dropping the starting salary down to just $8.65 today. It also enjoys a seven-year collective agreement it negotiated with the United Food and Commercial Workers -- one of Maple Leaf's demands before it agreed to open shop in Brandon. The contract doesn't expire until 2006. "The challenge for us is Brandon is a fairly tight labour market. Unemployment is about three or four per cent," said LeBlanc of Maple Leaf. Maple Leaf tried recruiting in the Maritimes, northwestern Manitoba and rural Saskatchewan and Alberta, with limited success, said LeBlanc. It then turned to the federal Human Resources Development Canada to find foreign labour. The Mexican labour also addresses Maple Leaf's other concern: high staff turnover. Their work visas lock in the Mexican workers for one or two years, and they have far lower no-show rates than Canadian workers. The Mexican workers who arrived in January all earned the six-month perfect attendance award which entitled them to a healthy bonus. Another concern: When the new shift is up and running, the union fears Brandon's infrastructure, especially its housing stock, won't be able to handle an influx of about 800 workers, both Canadian and Mexican. But the union says it is talking with the provincial government, pushing it to start looking at improving housing, child care and other services. Francisco Echeverria, who left behind a wife and two daughters in Leon, shrugs off the suggestion that the leap into life in Brandon was jarring. "I was looking for another job, and I saw the ad in the newspaper and I think 'Canada? Why not?'" said Echeverria, who checked Brandon out on the Internet before coming. "I like the town atmosphere. You don't see violence. You can walk anywhere at three or four in the morning and nothing will happen." Echeverria's English is strong, and he hopes to become a Canadian citizen, something Maple Leaf is lobbying the province and federal government for. Meanwhile, on the province's vegetable farms near Portage la Prairie, the practice of importing Mexican workers has been in place for decades. It mirrors a similar practice in the tobacco fields and greenhouses of southern Ontario, where concerns have been raised about the migrants' access to decent housing, employment standards regulations and basic community services. But labour and agriculture groups have raised no such concerns in Manitoba, and the men who spend six months at a time among the rows of cabbage, celery and carrots have a 70-per-cent return rate, said Darrell Fiel, the federal government's point man on the program in the region. As part of a contract, employers must provide the Mexican migrants with workers' compensation coverage, decent housing, a portion of their travel expenses and laundry facilities. maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca
Groups
Seek Investigation of Hog Manure Lagoon According to Cook, the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, in cooperation with the Association for the Preservation of the Bouctouche Watershed, conducted a water sampling program for fecal coliforms along a small watercourse which once crossed an area now occupied by a large manure lagoon. "During the construction of the lagoon, this watercourse was diverted and a subsurface drainage pipe was installed as a mitigating measure", says Cook. The sampling program consisted of three sample sites along this watercourse: the spring, which is the source of the watercourse; the watercourse, before it enters the property where the lagoon is located; and near the pipe, where the watercourse is supposed to exit the property. These sites were sampled on three separate days (September 28, October 4 and October 21). Samples were analyzed at Atlantic Water Testing in Moncton and a private industry laboratory.
Milewski believes fecal coliforms are a "deleterious substance" as defined by section 36(3) of the Fisheries Act. AI have written to Environment Canada asking them to investigate the manure lagoon as a possible source of fecal coliform contamination. If this proves to be the case, then the operation is in violation of section 36(3) of the Fisheries Act and should be prosecuted accordingly, says Milewksi. Fecal coliform contamination
of shellfish beds is a chronic problem resulting in a significant loss
of livelihood, as well as recreation, for many local residents. According
to Milewski, large manure lagoons such as the one in Sainte Marie-de-Kent
pose a significant threat to water quality for humans and wildlife, particularly
shellfish. PRAIRIE
HOG BARNS
Foes
says intensive livestock production harms environment
Schneider
Corp. buys out Mitchell "Beyond
Factory Farming." So-called "Intensive Livestock Operations" came in for a rough ride in Saskatoon this past weekend. Farmers, activists and water experts from the Prairies and U.S. came together for a conference called "Beyond Factory Farming." They roundly condemned the practice of housing large numbers of animals, whether they are chickens, turkeys, hogs or cattle in what are called "Confined Animal Feeding Operations," often owned by large corporations. People at the conference claimed the waste from these plants, which are more like industries than farms, is massive and harmful to the air, water, soil and people. The head of the Sierra Club of Canada, Elizabeth May, says Canada has become a major exporter of pork. But this has come about by taking production away from family farmers and concentrating it in the hands of a wealthy few. "No wonder that it's often the traditional pig farmer who objects to seeing an industrial livestock operation moving into his community or her community because they just know this defies any normal, sustainable order of things. This is going to, you know, the old cliché there, there goes the neighborhood. There goes your air quality, there goes your water quality, there goes a lot more health issues around antibiotics, antibiotic resistance, our accessibility to drugs we're going to need when we need them...the constant prophylactic use of antibiotics to increase production & boost growth in animals that really don't have much reason to grow, confined to the cages indoors all their lives. There are also animal issues, animal welfare, animal well being. Sierra Club of Can. Is not an animal rights organization but I just don't think any living, breathing, sentient human being can accept that animals as intelligent as pigs should be living in the kind of conditions that go on in those small cages. It's another issue but it needs to be said." Applause up & out.
"On July 21st at 9.15 in the evening, near the community of McGregor, not far from where I live, an above-ground manure storage tank burst. A million gallons of hog slurry dropped out onto a sandy aquifer. Immediately, all that was left on the surface was the solids, of course. 2 wells in the immediate area were contaminated. About 10 days later, a reporter 'foned me, & he said, I got an anonymous call that something went wrong at McGregor. He gave me a land description. I drove over. You could see what had happened. & so then it was exposed, the media jumped all over it, & the govt & the industry had time to put in force damage control. & they come out & they said well, yes, there was a spill but, you know, the system worked! Because it was reported within an hour & 15 mins. of the spill! What they didn't tell the public was, they didn't know that barn was there! Because any barn built before 1998 in Manitoba was not licensed. They don't know where they are! They're up in an airplane now, following Hogwatch around, lookin' for barns.! A member of the Waterkeeper Alliance in the 'States, Rick Dove, had an ominous warning for Canadians at the meeting. He says factory farms have already taken a devastating toll on the Neuse River in his State, North Carolina. He presented pictures and interviews, documenting the growth of pathogens which thrive in polluted waters there. Dove says a billion fish in the State have died from pollution which has come largely from big hogs operations. He says people who come into contact with the water such as fishermen, can develop nasty sores and even memory loss from airborne pathogens. "Any family farmer using family farmer practice can't compete with 'em at the market place. So where are they making all their money? They're making all their money by externalizing their costs to the environment which is our environment. You know that & everybody else knows that here today, so...we've learned those lessons so, now this industry is going all over the world telling us the lies they told us in North Carolina, trying to convince everybody that this is an ok thing to do. They are finished in North Carolina & in my opinion, they will never build the new technology in North Carolina kuz they can't afford to do it & they can't afford to do it because they can afford to do it cheaper if they take it to Canada. So I apologize to you all because we are driving 'em to you & we're driving them out of the country in my opinion kuz we're tightening down on the regulations & we're after them to the point where we're not going to let 'em get away with this pollution any more. So they're trying to do it to you & the question is, can you learn from our example." Among the sponsors
of the conference were the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives and
the National Farmers' Union. Large
Pig Barns Spreading North The two-day meeting, called Beyond Factory Farming, included speakers from Canada and the U.S. Delegates said that many provinces have gone out of their way to attract large farming operations in order to boost the rural economy. But government inspectors rarely look at the big barns, and leave it up to companies to report on where the manure is being dumped and how it's affecting drinking water, they said. "As the industry expands, they don't increase their capacity to monitor and inspect," said Manitoba rancher Fred Tait. "In fact their capacity decreases." Limit barn size, improve inspections Tait, who is president of Hogwatch Manitoba, became concerned about environmental risks after a large hog barn's waste storage tank burst near his home last summer – polluting wells in the area. The above-ground container wasn't built properly, he said. On top of that, "the province didn't know the barn existed." Conference delegates said companies should not be allowed to build such large barns, and inspections should be conducted by people not connected to the owners. A man from North Carolina, Rick Dove, told the meeting about a river near his home that became contaminated by toxic levels of manure from a giant livestock operation. Land and water in Prairie provinces will also become polluted unless action is taken, he predicted. "It is insane to do this in Canada," Dove said. "Trying to raise these animals in these large, large numbers in such a cold climate. Where's all that waste going?" Written by CBC News
Online staff Animal
rights groups applaud Florida hog crate ban CHICAGO — Animal welfare groups, bolstered by a Florida vote that bans the popular swine industry practice of keeping pregnant pigs in small pens, said Wednesday they hope other states will follow to make hog farming more humane. Florida voters Tuesday approved a state constitutional amendment to prohibit commercial hog farmers from housing pregnant sows in cages that are too small to turn around in. The proposal, placed on the ballot by animal rights activists, passed 55 percent to 45 percent. The measure will have only limited effect in Florida. Among the state's 10 commercial hog farms, only two use the small stalls known as "gestation crates" to house pregnant pigs, and one of those is going out of business in December, the Miami Herald reported last week. Hog farmers say the stalls are necessary because sows are aggressive and will attack each other to get more food if housed together. Housed in separate cages, they receive individualized nutrition and cannot hurt each other, farmers have said. Animal welfare groups reject those arguments. "It is a national movement to prevent this type of cruelty on factory farms," said Wayne Pacelle, senior vice president of the Humane Society of the United States. "We won't be satisfied until all states ban the keeping of pigs in 2-foot-by-7-foot crates for the bulk of their lives." Another group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, also cheered the Florida vote and said use of the crates is one of several practices in the livestock industry that harm animals. "If a dog or cat were treated similarly, people could go to jail," said Bruce Friedrich, a PETA spokesman. Pacelle said the Florida amendment should boost efforts to ban the practice in top hog-producing states such as Iowa, North Carolina, Nebraska, and Illinois, either with similar petition-based ballots or by working through state legislatures. "It certainly gives momentum to any effort that would be advanced to ban gestation crates in other states," Pacelle said. About 64 percent of the nation's roughly 80,000 hog farms use the gestation crates, pork industry officials said. "We've have both types of systems," said Missouri hog producer Kathy Chinn, who is also chairman of the National Pork Board's animal welfare committee. "We have moved progressively toward the stalled system as opposed to the group housing because we find it much better to care for our sows." The board is a farmer-funded industry group that works to promote pork and develop new pork products. In September, more than 900,000
sows on U.S. farms "farrowed" or gave birth to a litter of pigs,
according to the latest monthly U.S. Agriculture Department data. Each
litter usually consists of seven to nine piglets. Top corporate hog farmers
include Smithfield Foods, Premium Standard Farms, and Seaboard Corp. Last
year, Virginia-based Smithfield owned 710,000 sows, Missouri-based Premium
Standard 211,000 sows, and Kansas-based Seaboard 185,000 sows, according
to industry statistics. Last updated: November 2, 2002 |