Citoyens pour l’environnement et l’avenir de l’Est ontarien

4 lettres à des éditeurs de journaux
(26-27 février 2003)

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To The Editor (of The Review, Vankleek Hill, 27 Feb. 2003)

to: review@hawk.igs.net

The Editor,

I agree that it is high time the air was cleared. We do need a public debate on what is the biggest threat to our communities and our environment: the threat of mega hog industries moving into Eastern Ontario. But we should not kid ourselves. What we are faced with, is THE struggle of our lifetime. A struggle between Goliath (a large industry whose primary interest is to maximize profit, with absolutely no stake in the communities it moves in) and David (us rural citizens and us farmers who struggle to make a living in our rural environment). The industry has a big propaganda machine. If there is a debate, it will only be a fair debate if we can devote time and resources to it and can invite the experts who have conducted studies showing how devastating the impact of mega hog industries is on communities and on local farmers.

We need to protect farms and farmers, and our rural environment. We can’t allow Eastern Ontario to become the manure dumping ground of Quebec. If we allow mega hog farms to be built here, we will all suffer the consequences - and only very few rich people in Quebec will benefit. Finally, we need a fair debate, but we and our rural communities also need protection. Our government is failing to protect us. The new Nutrient Management Act and the proposed regulations are a joke – they fail to protect farmers AND fail to protect the environment. They are too strict for small farmers. But they are not strict enough for mega hog industries, which need a totally different regulatory framework.

A very concerned citizen and farmer,

Mrs. Louise Rock

St Eugene

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LETTRE À L’ÉDITEUR

Au journal Le Carillon

L’Est-ontarien : future soue à cochons d’industriels québécois?

Re: Adoption d’un moratoire d’un an sur les mégafermes

Dans votre article, vous écrivez « il s’est trouvé des agriculteurs pour défendre l’industrie et son dossier environnemental », puis vous me citez comme si j’avais parlé pour défendre la méga-industrie porcine et prétendre qu’elle respecte l’environnement... Mais ce n’est vraiment pas ce que je disais. Je parlais plutôt pour la défense des fermes familiales, de nos agriculteurs et de notre environnement rural. En Europe, où j’ai grandi avant de venir ici à deux pas des lignes Ontario/Québec, la loi protège les fermiers et l’environnement bien mieux que la nouvelle loi et le nouveau règlement de l’Ontario sur la gestion des éléments nutritifs.

Ces nouvelles lois ontariennes sont une grande menace à nos fermes familiales : elles leur imposent des règles qui peuvent être trop strictes et coûteuses. Mais les mêmes lois menacent aussi gravement notre santé et notre environnement, en n’étant pas assez sévères avec les méga-industries du porc qui amènent des risques beaucoup plus lourds et vastes, dont elles voudraient refiler les coûts aux contribuables et aux communautés locales.

Les lois actuelles nous laissent vulnérables à une invasion de l’Est ontarien par des méga-porcheries. En plus, elles ne nous protègent pas contre les ravages que les mégas-porcheries risquent de causer à nos agriculteurs locaux, à notre santé, à notre eau, à notre air, à nos communautés locales et à notre portefeuille. Ne laissons pas l’Est ontarien devenir la soue à cochons des industriels québécois.

Si nous laissons des méga-porcheries se construire ici, nous en subirons tous les conséquences – et seulement quelques riches Québécois en empocheront des profits.

Ralf Jürgens, Rigaud

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LETTRE À L’ÉDITEUR

To The Editor (of The Review, Vankleek Hill, 27 Feb. 2003)

I am not an activist, but I find myself drawn into the issue of the huge pork operations moving into our area. When I first heard the rumors, I was mildly concerned. I know the smell of hog manure, and its particular charms are unmistakable, but occasionally they must be endured. This is after all, a farm area, and farmers have a difficult and risky job to do. Agriculture is subject to the whims of weather and the market. However, when I did some research, I became alarmed. Intensive hog operations are the pariahs of agriculture. In almost every jurisdiction of westrern society there is an outcry against these meat factories. Most European countries have strong protective standards. Holland has bought out many of these pork producers, to close them down. South Carolina, Manitoba, Quebec and other areas in North America are under strong pressure from their citizens to control the impact of such operations. Here in Ontario, local governments are acting vigorously to protect their communities.

The Ontario government, driven by intense reaction to its public health failures, notably in Walkerton and elsewhere, are promoting the Nutrient Management Act. This is a ham-fisted measure that will harm ordinary farmers, while sheilding these huge corporate entities from community accountability. These facilities would consume vast quantities of land, resources, and water, would buy their feed from other corporate growers(not necessarily local), ship their product somewhere else for processing, and leave behind tens of thousands of tons of untreated, uncomposted, anaerobic waste, which is more like toxic industrial sludge than agricultural manure. Anybody with internet access or a library card, can find a huge volume of information about the harmful effects of this kind of activity.

Industry has been forced to be clean. No industry can be established that knowingly pollutes and creates a hazzard for the community. The very scale of these pork operations and their wastes is undeniable. I am saying that these intensive hog operations are in fact, more factory than farm, and they should be regulated as such. A separate category, even a seperate act, should be made to regulate them.

The proposed Nutrient Management Act must be reconsidered. In its present form, it will punish family farmers, driving many out of business, while encouraging huge corporate operations. Farmers have deep roots and ties to their communities, and are generally responsive to their neighbours. Corporations respond to the bottom line. We should not let this happen. Protect our farmers. Regulate these factories.

Vlasta Vrana

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR, Ottawa Citizen

Fax: (613) 596-8458

Farms Not Factories

Re: Farmers go back to manure school (25 February)

Ontario farmers deserve protection, as does the health of Ontarians. The Nutrient Management Act and the proposed regulations don't provide that protection. Only corporate-owned intensive livestock operations will benefit. The Act and regulations may indeed be too stringent for farmers. But they are totally inadequate for what are not farms, but mega-industries that have a devastating impact on the environment, on the health of people living in their vicinity, on the economic development and future of entire communities, and on existing farming operations. The Ontario government needs to fix this problem before it is too late. The first step would be to regulate farms as farms, giving farmers the protection they need; and to regulate intensive livestock operations as industries, adequately protecting our health and environment. It is not too late to fix the problem.

Vlasta Vrana, Louise Rock

Citizens for the Environment and Future in Eastern Ontario

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