New rules bring about 'dark day' for producers: pork council

Hog producers are reeling in the wake of a provincial announcement that indefinitely extends a ban on new or expanded hog operations in much of southern Manitoba.

The government announced Monday that the ban would be extended in three large regions of the province the southeast, Red River Valley and the Interlake after a report from the provincial Clean Environment Commission warned of potential future phosphorus contamination of water bodies from hog operations.

The moratorium replaces a temporary provincewide ban that was put in place in November 2006 to allow the Clean Environment Commission to review how Manitoba's 8.8 million pigs were affecting the environment.

But hog farmers say their operations contribute only a small amount of the phosphorus polluting Manitoba's waterways, and their industry is being unfairly blamed for the problem.

"This is a very dark day for the hog industry to get sideswiped and be singled out as just one industry being responsible for the phosphorus that runs into Lake Winnipeg. It's very disappointing," said Manitoba Pork Council chair Karl Kynoch.

Pork council officials questioned why the government is not placing moratoriums on cattle or chicken farms, or on urban development.

"Have they shut down any of the housing in Winnipeg? No, they have not. As we know, a lot of the phosphorus comes out of there," Kynoch said.

Hog producers being scapegoated: Kynoch

Kynoch said the CEC did not actually recommend the ban. He said he believes the move is purely political, and hog producers are taking the blame for larger environmental issues in the province.

The extension of the ban caught some producers off guard, he added.

"What they're concerned about now is the devaluation of their farms," he said. "For example, if a father wants to bring his son into the operation and he needs to expand it to make it viable, he doesn't have that opportunity anymore. It's gone."

Strict new environmental regulations that will be implemented in other parts of the province could cost individual producers up to $200,000, Kynoch added.

The hog industry has been a prime target for Manitoba environmentalists, largely because it has exploded over the past decade. There were 4.8 million hogs little more than half the current population in the province in 2000, according to government statistics.

Hog producers in Manitoba area already struggling to deal with soaring feed prices, low livestock prices and a high Canadian dollar. Some producers have told CBC News they are losing tens of thousands of dollars per week on their operations.

Adding to the uncertainty are fears that a proposed country-of-origin food-labelling law in the United States could shut Canadian producers off from American customers, who are currently the main buyers for Manitoba hogs.