On the occasion of World Water Day, a new coalition of citizens and experts is calling for manure from pig farms to finally be managed by watershed, as recommended by the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE).
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
“The overall finding in relation to pesticides and phosphorus can only worry a citizen,” argues environmental activist Pierre Avignon, who wrote the document published on Tuesday by the Megapigeries coalition no thank you.
Management of slurry by watershed is one of the 13 demands of the coalition, which notably brings together citizens’ committees opposed to piggery projects, environmental and agricultural organizations (Eau Secours, Fondation Rivières, Vigilance OGM, Union paysanne) and experts from the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM), such as Louise Vandelac (director of the Ecohealth Research Collective on Pesticides, Policies and Alternatives) and Lucie Sauvé (researcher emeritus at the Center for Research in Education and Training environment and eco-citizenship).
These 13 proposals “were not invented”, underlines Mr. Avignon. They are inspired by the recommendations of the BAPE investigation report on pork production, which had been published in 2003 but had not been implemented. “These are things that seem obvious and have been in the air for all these years. It exists, go! »
Why monitor slurry spreading by watershed?
“The water system is global and it ends up accumulating somewhere. The idea is to have access to independent expertise to be sure to see the effects happen,” explains Mr. Avignon, citing the most recent Report on the state of water resources and aquatic ecosystems in Quebec, published by the Ministry of the Environment in 2020. Out of 22 watercourses in an agricultural environment (from 25% to 80% of the territory of the catchment area occupied by agriculture), only one was judged to be of satisfactory quality! “The high concentration of livestock in certain watersheds” and major crops, such as corn and soybeans, contribute to the problem, notes the Ministry.
Why are we talking about it now?
Several recent piggery projects, particularly in Estrie, Outaouais and Mauricie, have provoked strong reactions from citizens and elected officials, who have complained of being presented with a fait accompli. The groups Vers un Val Vert, created in response to a project in the Canton of Valcourt, in Estrie, and Request for a delay for the pork industry in Saint-Adelphe, in Mauricie, are members of the coalition. And in February, the municipal council of Béthanie, a small village in Montérégie that ran out of water last summer, asked the Minister of the Environment to reject the request to expand a local piggery, and the Minister of Agriculture to impose a national moratorium on any construction or expansion project.
Besides, what is a megapig?
“In Quebec, there is no recognized indicator establishing the number of pigs that a pigsty must contain for it to be specifically designated by the term megapigsty,” confirms the Grand Dictionnaire terminologique of the Office de la langue française. According to Les Éleveurs de porcs du Québec, this type of facility does not exist here, where the largest maternity units have an average of 2,600 sows. “Elsewhere, such as in China, sites can house tens of thousands of sows, approaching peaks of nearly 85,000 sows,” argues the spokesperson for the Federation, Frédéric Labelle.
“There is a vocabulary issue,” recognizes Mr. Avignon. Quebec regulations require a review of the BAPE for projects of 4,000 pigs or more, and “when we have reached 3,999 pigs, we can definitely talk about a mega pig farm,” he believes. Beyond the figures, it is the “industrial” model of breeding “several thousand pigs on land where there are no inhabitants” or for “integrators who own nearly a million pigs” denounced by the coalition. “We really want to work on an agricultural model that respects local development and the environment,” says Mr. Avignon, who denies being “against agriculture”.
Isn’t there already a moratorium on piggery projects?
Olymel having reduced its annual purchase and slaughter volume by 530,000 hogs in Quebec, Les Éleveurs recently announced a freeze on “reference volumes”, i.e. authorizations to produce fattening pigs , imposing a de facto moratorium on new projects. However, this moratorium is economic, not environmental, and of indefinite duration. “It’s a good time to review the rules,” however, believes Mr. Avignon.
What are the other claims?
The coalition suggests several measures to improve water protection, including revising the standards on riparian strips and ensuring that they are enforced. It also asks that citizens be consulted before developers have obtained their certificate of authorization, and not after, and that the Minister of the Environment have the discretionary power to prohibit any installation of 2,500 to 4,000 animal units per building.