The hurt from capping an industry reaches far and wide

There's real concern the hog expansion moratorium in Manitoba will not only stagnate the hog industry, but could well shrink it out of existence, if current discussions between the provincial NDP government and the hog industry don't resolve the issue.
Producers, processors, jobs, supply and support sectors, and cities, towns and communities all have a stake in what the much maligned Bill 46 and trumped-up charges blaming the hog industry is doing to thwart a once thriving industry.
Dr. Don Flaten, professor at the University of Manitoba and chair of the National Centre for Livestock and the Environment said there are many myths and about the role of agriculture, the role of livestock, the role of the pig industry as it pertains to water quality and more specifically to ills of Lake Winnipeg.
"Some people think the water quality issues really only started when the pork industry in Manitoba expanded 15 years ago," says Flaten. "When in fact there is a history going back centuries for water quality challenges in prairie water sheds."
The professor says human activity, not only agriculture by any means, and certainly not just livestock production, towns and cities have all contributed to increased risks and severity of some water quality problems like the algae blooms so prominent on Lake Winnipeg.
Its the myths, politics, and blame game that contribute to blame game where many people want to blame the other person for the problem.
The hog industry in Manitoba has taken the lead in educating, teaching, and training hog farmers that for the land to gain the most benefit from this awesome nutrient, do it right. There are some bad apples, but even in the last four to five years with the industry in the economic tank, the news stories and complaints about misuse and accidents have been far and in between. Farmers are the best environmentalists this world has, because they live off the land, and don't inhabit the ivory towers where most of the purest environmentalists reside telling the world's greatest food-producers how to run their collective businesses.
The Mayor of Brandon is urging the Manitoba government to take steps that will ensure the province's pork processors are able to access the supplies of hogs necessary to maintain the viability of their packing plants.
The Save Lake Winnipeg Act, passed in June 2011, contains new provisions aimed at reducing the amount of nutrients entering Lake Winnipeg including new restrictions on hog production. Maple Leaf Foods and Hylife Foods have expressed concern over the impact the legislation could have on their ability to source the number of hogs required to maintain the capacity of their hog slaughtering plants.
Brandon Mayor Shari Decter Hirst says no one denies there are real issues with water quality in Lake Winnipeg but she suggests it's a multi-faceted issue.
"What we need to do is figure out how we can manage hog waste within the province better. How are we going to be doing that so it doesn't impact the hog producer in a negative way," says Decter Hirst. "Again there is some real pressures on hog producers to meet current environmental standards and I'm not saying they shouldn't be meeting environmental standards. What I'm saying is let's figure out a way of doing it in an economical fashion."
She says people need to understand what the unintended consequences of that hog moratorium are on a community like Brandon, a community like Neepawa, any community that is relying on agriculture for its bread and butter because she don't believe that was the intent.
"Let's figure out how we can save the lake but how can we also do it and have a vibrant hog sector as well in our province," she says.
Decter Hirst says it's easy to have a knee jerk response because of the significant consequences, but government and industry needs to look at it from a long term perspective, come up with the right solution for the lake, the right solution for producers and the right solution for Maple Leaf and the City of Brandon. •
— By Harry Siemens