Environmental Performance
Protecting the environment. It's the right thing to do.
Manitoba's pork producers are committed to sustainable and environmentally responsible farming practices because it's the right thing to do. And their livelihoods depend on it.
Manitoba has some of the toughest environmental laws in North America. Pork producers are also heavily scrutinized. But that’s not enough. Pork producers have stepped up to the challenge and developed a balanced approach that allows them to effectively and proactively deal with environmental issues, while maintaining economic viability.
Manitoba Pork, through its Sustainable Development Committee, funds extensive research into environmentally sustainable production systems. MPC also commits to helping farmers discover new and better ways to manage manure and odour from barns. Manure is a highly valuable resource. Managed properly, returning organic nutrients to the soil allows farmers to make their soil more productive without adding chemicals.
These days, manure is injected into the soil rather than spread on top, and this eliminates odour and runoff. Farmers also plant shelterbelts on their properties and use manure storage covers – anything from a thick layer of barley straw to installed plastic covers – to alleviate odour concerns. All of these practices must be detailed in annual manure management plans, annual soil testing and manure analysis, which are filed with Manitoba Conservation.
For more information on the Manitoba pork industry’s environmental performance and vision for the future, check out Embracing a Sustainable Future, which features 82 commitments to long-term sustainable development, or an assortment of MPC’s publications focused on the environment.
I am part of the solution.
View the 30-second television commercials and for a more complete story, watch the two-minute videos below.
Mobile users, click below.
Sheldon's 30-second commercial
Sheldon - 2:36
Dean's 30-second commercial
Dean - 2:03
Scott's 30-second commercial
Scott - 1:45
George's 30-second commercial
George - 1:59
Phosphorus and Lake Winnipeg
Phosphorus is one of the building blocks of life. It is necessary to grow plants and sustain people and animals. Plants take phosphorus from the soil, and animals take phosphorus from the plants they eat. Humans in turn take phosphorus from both the plants and the animals. Animal manure is recycled into the soil.
This phosphorus recycling makes hog manure a valuable organic fertilizer for Manitoba's vast cropland.
Recently, the presence of excess P in Lake Winnipeg has contributed to the growth of damaging algae on the lake, which is treasured as a natural jewel of this province.
It is to protect the lake - and for many other reasons - that managing phosphorus is a clear priority for Manitoba’s pork producers. As one of many contributors of phosphorus to the nutrient cycle, the province’s pork industry takes the responsibility of managing phosphorus very seriously.
Plan P
Manitoba Pork is putting its Plan P into action every day to ensure no valuable phosphorus is wasted or allowed to enter waterways.
Bill 46
Despite the many measures taken by pork producers to protect Manitoba's natural resources, and despite its own existing law that makes it illegal to allow manure to run off into waterways, the provincial government has enacted legislation that penalizes pork producers more than any other phosphorus contributor. Bill 46, which the government named The Save Lake Winnipeg Act, permanently bans the construction of new hog barns and the expansion of existing hog barns everywhere in the province.
In other words, if a producer currently has 15 sows, he cannot legally expand his herd to 16 - even if he has more than enough cropland to accommodate the manure these pigs would produce. Bill 46 indicates that expansion will be allowed if the province approves the use of certain environmental technologies, but it cannot confirm what those technologies are.
Bill C-46 The Save Lake Winnipeg Act
The provincial government preceded its announcement of Bill 46 with the release of a study on Lake Winnipeg, which it used as the basis of its actions against pork producers.
The Leavitt Report
Manitoba Pork's Response to Bill 46
On behalf of its producer members across the province, Manitoba Pork sent a formal letter of protest to Premier Greg Sellinger and the Ministers of Conservation, Water Stewardship and Agriculture, protesting the hog barn moratorium.
14 commodity groups representing almost every kind of agricultural production in Manitoba signed an open letter to Manitobans that ran in the Saturday, August 13, 2011 Winnipeg Free Press.
View the letter and the signatures.
Concerned members of Manitoba's business community, led by Maple Leaf Foods and HyLife Foods, signed a second open letter to Manitobans that ran in the Saturday, August 27, 2011 Winnipeg Free Press.
View the letter and the signatures.