Publication

This book chapter discusses environmental issues stemming from the growth hog industry in Quebec and Manitoba.  The comparison between these provinces is interesting because the Quebec hog industry experienced its first period of fast growth in the 1970s while the hog industry in Manitoba grew rapidly in the middle of the 1980s.  Quebec exports mostly pork meat while Manitoba exports mostly piglets and live hogs.  Both ended up imposing a moratorium on new and expanded production facilities in response to air pollution and water quality degradation.  Quebec was first to impose a moratorium in 2002.  Complaints about odours seemed to have played a larger role in Quebec while in Manitoba eutrophication seemed to be the main concern. The moratorium in Manitoba was imposed in 2006.  In both cases, the moratorium was a political statement to convey that concerns were taken seriously and it gave time to come up with new regulations.  In Quebec as in Manitoba, the moratorium could not solve the problem of excess phosphorus in regions with high density hog populations, but it prevented growth in areas where hog production expansion would have had benign environmental consequences.  In Quebec as in Manitoba, the construction of new hog facilities can proceed only after a public consultation. In Quebec, producers must document their “green” practices in order to receive production subsidies from the Revenue Insurance program.  The latter is a generous program that encourages production even in regions where there are too many hogs.