February 17, 2003
CREEK again appeals to Council
Subject:
Request for Prince Edward County Council to follow the examples of
Brockton and Kincardine County Councils.
To Mayor Taylor and Prince Edward County Council:
CREEK has, for the past two years, had ample opportunity to collect and examine a wealth of information and research on the issue of Intensive Livestock Operations. We can only conclude that large-scale, hog operations, most operating under corporate contracts, compelled to adopt a factory model of production, involving concentrated, confinement housing, cesspool-like liquid manure storage of hog feces and urine, and the spreading or spraying of liquid manure on open fields, represents a terrible future for the Province of Ontario.
CREEK strongly agrees with the following exerpt taken from Professor John Ikerd's presentation, Corporate Livestock Production: Implications for Rural North America:
" Inevitably, liquid hog manure from these operations pollute streams. The only questions relate to how many spills will occur in how many months and how great a risk they present to human health. All large confinement hog feeding operations stink. The only questions relate to how much of what chemicals are contained in the stench and how great a risk they present to human health. All large hog confinement operations rely on antibiotics to control desease. The only questions relate to how much this contributes to antibiotic resistance in treating human diseases and how great a risk it presents to human health.The common sense answer to all of these questions is the greater the number of hogs concentrated in one place, the greater will be the risk to the natural environment, and ultimately, the greater the risk to human health.
Large-scale confinement hog feeding operations are not "farms." they are hog factories. When hogs are raised on real farms, they are given sufficient space to move about, they spread their own waste - and with common sense management, don't pollute the groundwater or surface water. When hogs are raised on real farms, they "smell" but don't "stink"- the difference being, "smell" doesn't make people sick. When hogs are raised on real farms, they need antibiotics only when they are sick, and generally, they stay healthy. The greater the number of hogs crowded in one building, on one "farm," in one municipality, in one county, the greater will be the risk to human health."
The provincial government, particularly OMAF, may feel compelled to wait for scientific proof, perhaps for a significantly large number of people to become disabled or die from hog related illnesses. But, at the local level, people have the responsibility of ensuring that they and their neighbours don't become those public health statistics.
We urge you to consider following the examples of Brockton and Kincardine.
For your information, the text of the Kincardine resolution follows.
Sincerely,
Linda Roberts
Chairperson, CREEK
10.2 Notice of Motion - (Councillor Hewitt January 8) -
Stage 2 Regulations of the Nutrient Management Act
Resolution #2003-037
Moved by: Ron Hewitt
Seconded by: Howard Ribey
WHEREAS there is nothing in the regulations to allow the Municipality to regulate, or the public to have input, when large industrial barns are being built,
AND WHEREAS there is nothing in the regulations that deals with odour from large industrial model barns, except MDS2;
AND WHEREAS there is nothing in the regulations to protect our ground water supply from large industrial model barns;
AND WHEREAS there are a lot of regulations and compliance issues that may put many small family farms out of business due to the associated costs, but will have little effect on the large industrial model farms;
AND WHEREAS the Municipality wants our rural communities to survive and prosper and have a healthy populated farming community, not just a large industrial model barn every mile or so with a huge amount of liquid manure being spread-,
AND WHEREAS other issues not addressed in the regulations are: 1) promote composting of manure; ii) long distance hauling of liquid manure on roads; and iii the need to support the family farms,
THEREFORE be it resolved that the Corporation of the Municipality of Kincardine petition the Ontario Government and OMAF to reevaluate and modify these Stage 2 regulations for the Nutrient Management Act to address the above concerns.
Carried