News Analysis

The Expansion of the Manitoba Hog Industry

Public consultations began June 29 in Morden on the growing hog industry in Manitoba. Led by a three-member panel, the consultations are mandated to do little else than provide a forum for people to express their views about the industry.

In 1975, market-hog production (slaughter and processing) in Manitoba amounted to 870,000 hogs per year, and by the end of 1999 it had increased to 4.5 million. New processing facilities being built in the province by large corporations like Schneider's will increase the capacity for production to close to 10 million hogs a year.

The expansion of the hog industry has been a contentious issue for the last few years. There are those who argue that it will create jobs and therefore spin-off economic benefits for all Manitobans. Others argue there are too many environmental problems associated with large-scale hog production to make it environmentally sustainable. Still others point out that workers in the hog industry face some of the highest rates of injury and occupational illness in North America.

While in opposition, the New Democratic Party criticized the Conservatives for granting licenses to set up a large-scale hog operation in Brandon. However, at the NDP convention in Brandon in March, 2000, the NDP leadership ensured that an attempt to get a resolution on the agenda to debate the environmental risks of large-scale hog farming was squelched. Earlier in the year, Premier Gary Doer had pledged $7 million to assist in constructing a plant, if the plant's plans passed an environmental review. At the same time, Winnipeg City Council approved a $2.2 million line of credit for Schneider's to be put against city taxes. Construction on the plant is expected to begin in the fall.

These are not the first consultations to be organized on the burgeoning hog industry. The former Filmon government also held consultations. The Citizens' Hearing on Hog Production and the Environment was organized by local environmental groups in Brandon from October 29-31, 1999 as well. This hearing arose, according to documents it released, from a dissatisfaction felt by some citizens that the Filmon government granted a license to Maple Leaf Meats for a large hog-processing plant in Brandon, which started operation in 1999, without convening Clean Environment Commission hearings.

There were three main areas of focus in the testimony and presentations made to the Citizens' Hearings: harm to the natural environment caused by large-scale hog operations in other parts of North America; the unsafe working conditions within the hog industry; and the harm to the social environment. The Citizens' Hearings found common characteristics in the relationship between the large-scale meat processing plants that have been established in North America over the last 20 years and their host communities. These included:

1. The creation of jobs which are, in the majority, low-paid, difficult and dangerous, leading to high turnover. Historically, employee turnover in packing plants averages 100 per cent annually and many employees are never at one plant long enough to earn the average wage and benefits or to establish community roots, the Citizens' Hearings found. Workers in hog barns have unique occupational illnesses, which include organic dust syndrome caused by hog dust, a high rate of chronic respiratory illness (asthma, chronic bronchitis), and respiratory or liver damage occurring over time, caused by exposure to bacterial endotoxins. Chronic respiratory disease in 25-30 percent of workers inside these facilities has been reported in 25 studies worldwide.

2. The use of large amounts of water and the discharge of liquid wastes containing coliform bacteria and disease organisms. The Hearings also identified the four main gases produced by the hog industry: hydrogen sulphide, carbon dioxide, ammonia, and methane. Elevated levels of these gases are toxic to many higher organisms.

3. Processing plants have tended to depress the price of hogs by vertical integration into large hog-production enterprises, by dominating the market for hogs, and by buying from independent producers only by contract. Many smaller farmers have been forced out of hog production as a result.

The Citizens' Hearings forwarded a number of recommendations to the Government of Manitoba, none of which have been implemented. The Doer government's public consultations will continue in Arborg (July 5), Brandon (July 11), Dauphin (July 13), Winnipeg (July 24) and Steinbach (July 31).