The Manitoba government is playing politics when it comes to hog barns, says the Manitoba Pork Council.
Reacting to a letter from Conservation and Water Stewardship Minister Gord Mackintosh and published in the Manitoba Co-operator, council chairman Karl Kynoch said he was extremely disappointed by the minister’s position on hog barn expansion and alternative manure-handling technologies.
“Gord Mackintosh completely drop kicked the industry when he released that letter,” Kynoch said. “What this boils down to is strictly elections, there’s an election coming up in a year and a half, the government is in the bottom of the poll… it’s all about politics and it’s not about doing the right thing for business.”
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In the letter, Mackintosh indicates the government will stand firm on commitments made in the Save Lake Winnipeg Act and will not “allow unrestricted province-wide hog production in Manitoba at the expense of the environment.”
Pork producers don’t want to damage the environment either, said Kynoch. What they want are alternatives to the current requirement that new hog barns be accompanied by anaerobic digesters — something the council has said is too expensive and too ineffective.
They also want to see an increase in hog production as porcine epidemic diarrhea and other factors reduce hog supplies. Recently, the Maple Leaf hog-processing plant in Brandon instituted “non-production days” to cope with the shortage.
Increased production will require new barns, said Kynoch.
The minister didn’t rule out alternative manure technologies for new barns. Rather, he wrote that “any pilot project proposal coming forward from the hog industry to the province must demonstrate zero negative impact on water quality and include effective odour control measures.”
“There is no such thing as a zero impact. What does zero impact mean?” asked Kynoch. “Basically what they wanted was zero impact on their election.”
The pork council had been working with the province on an alternative manure-handling system composed of a series of lagoons or holding cells, he said, noting he believed they were in agreement on how to move forward.
“We had worked with government for a number of years here to come to an agreement… we had agreements on ways to move forward with manure application and handling of manure lagoons that was achieving the government’s goal and allowing industry to again replace some of the hogs that are missing,” he said.
The pork council will now review its options and decide if it’s financially prudent to continue researching digester alternatives. Kynoch added that he doesn’t believe any technology they put forward will be accepted by the province, regardless of the science behind it.
“For some reason — I don’t know why — but this government seems to have a hatred on for family farms,” he said.
