The announcement March 3^rd by Manitoba Conservation that it was implementing indefinite moratoriums on the construction of new or expanded hog operations in three regions of the province led to reactions of shock and outrage from industry representatives. Conservation Minister Stan Struthers said that the restrictions applied to southeastern Manitoba, the Red River Valley and the Interlake, while the moratorium for the rest of the province was lifted. However, the report of the Clean Environment Committee also made 48 recommendations aimed at making the hog industry more environmentally sustainable. These include a requirement for new manure storage facilities to have synthetic covers and a complete ban on winter manure spreading from 2013.

Manitoba Pork Council chairman Karl Kynoch says imposing a permanent moratorium will hurt the value of existing farms in the affected area, especially small family farms, and may end any opportunity to attract a new processing plant to the province. “We were expecting, after the public consultations, that there weren’t too many huge issues and that it would be a fairly neutral report,” he explains. “We have some concerns with the CEC report but what just blew us out of the water was the fact that the government went outside of the report and implemented a permanent moratorium on the eastern side of the province.”

Kynoch believes that the moratorium will affect at least two thirds of the production because most of the production is in those regions. He says that his big concern is the potential devaluation of buildings and the effect on the viability of family farms that are unable to expand or develop their facilities. “There’s going to be a lot of hard decisions made, especially on some of the small family farms whether to continue on or whether to shut the operation down.”

Kynoch says that singling out the hog industry, which accounts for only about 1.5 percent of the phosphorus runoff ending up in Lake Winnipeg, is the wrong way to go, especially when farmers will still be allowed to use chemical fertilizer. He also notes that swine manure contains a wider range of nutrients needed by crops and the moratorium will limit access to that source of crop nutrients at a time when farmers are looking for every opportunity to reduce input costs.

In response to the government’s decision, Manitoba Pork Council, Keystone Agricultural Producers and the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce announced they had formed an alliance that will work to have the decision overturned. A working group will be formed to examine the CEC report and its recommendations and identify the best way to implement those recommendations, engage in lobby efforts to convince the government to reverse the decision and conduct public education to build awareness of the issue.

Karl Kynoch says targeting one industry is unjustified.  “What’s really concerning is the fact that the government spent $750,000 doing a Clean Environment Commission review of our industry and has now gone outside of those recommendations. The CEC did not recommend putting a moratorium on the hog industry and we feel that the government has announced this moratorium, at the same time the report has come out, just trying to blame it on the commission. It’s very disappointing for us to see them do that kind of an investigation on our industry and then go outside the recommendations and put this moratorium on.”

Keystone Agricultural Producers president Ian Wishart observes that only the hog industry is being targeted which makes you wonder about the science behind all of this. “You can generally explain that approach to farmers and get good cooperation but, if it isn’t based on science, it’s pretty hard to get farmers to act,” he says.

Manitoba Chambers of Commerce policy and communications director Dan Overall agrees the government has not dealt with the hog industry in an evenhanded manner. “It’s bad not only for that specific industry but for our reputation as a province. Government needs to deal with industry in an even-handed manner and it needs to know that it can’t get away with not doing that,” he says.