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I don't have knowledge of the agricultural industry, but today, as I read Murray Mandryk's article "Hog in the headlines(1)" I felt to write few lines and warn our readers of the relentless policies of this government to further kill the family farm, pollute the environment and increase the wealth of the few and privileged. Mandryk described quite well the regressive policies of this government in the hog industry. Mandryk claims that the government is investing $15 million into Big Sky Farms Inc. because our business climate is not conducive to attract private investment dollars, even though this government is not imposing restrictive environmental controls on huge hog barn operations and exempts hog operators from certain Labour Standards Act provisions such as overtime, working conditions and vacation pay.

The direction to support giant hog barns doesn't sustain the rural economy and our government doesn't want to learn how small hog farms are thriving in Manitoba without any governmental support and it doesn't want to learn about the astronomic social costs caused by huge hog operators in the United Sates(2).

Environmentalist Donella Meadows states that "in any functional democracy massive animal-feeding operations, if permitted at all, would be tightly regulated, fined for their infractions, taxed like everyone else, and made to clean up their messes at their own expense(3)." And in Saskatchewan we have no hope that this situation will occur since our own government is putting money into huge hog farms, and our own government is protecting this industry by legislatively relaxing pollution and labour standards.

Endnotes:

1. Hog in the headlines, by Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post, July 19, 2000, Regina, Saskatchewan

2. You can refer to the following sites to know more about industrial hog farming: www.hogwatch.org www.factoryfarm.org www.cfra.org www.nrdc.org/nrdcpro/factor/aafinx.html

3. How Campaign Reform Could Clean Up a log of Hog Manure, Donella Meadows' The Global Citizen, January 20, 2000 http://iisd1.iisd.ca/pcdf/meadows/hog_manure.html