The scoop on pig poop

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by Kristian Gravenor

Every year in Quebec seven-million pigs are killed on 4,400 farms, mostly around St-Hyacinthe, Quebec City and the Beauce. Most of the pork gets exported to Japan and the States, but the pig poop stays, stinking up the land and polluting rivers, leading to fears of another Walkerton tragedy. Citizen groups have sprouted up throughout the province demanding a moratorium on new pig farms and in June, Quebec ordered new guidelines to treat the manure. But opponents still accuse the government of bad bureaucracy.

"I'd say pig manure is the prime source of pollution in Quebec and nothing is being done to control it," says Priscilla Gareau, president of the Green Movement of the Mauricie. "For example, many pig farmers manipulate the rules by keeping 599 pigs because 600 would force them into public hearings and the government tolerates this."

Others complain that guidelines encourage mega-pork farms by handing out subsidies to large distributors rather than the small farmer. "It's leading to the depopulation of the countryside and taking jobs away," says Roméo Bouchard, the Kamouraska-based leader of Save Our Countrysides. He claims the pork waste does "almost irreversible damage" to the water supply and also questions the health of the beasts. "They need all sorts of chemicals and hormones just to stand upright," he says. Bouchard's point of view is spotlighted in an NFB documentary called Bacon, to air on Télé-Québec, Nov. 12 at 8 p.m.