The Rural Voice, 2000-08, Page 65PERTH ilfotk
County Pork Producers NEWSLETTER
Jim Van Herk, President
519-595-4863
• The Rural Voice is provided to Perth
County Pork Producers by the PCPPA.
Farmers are the easy target!
Any opinions expressed herein may
not necessarily reflect the views of
the Perth County. Pork Producers'
Association.
During the past several months
hog farmers and manure spills have
been popping up regularly in the
news. It seems like the media can't
get their hands on enough
ammunition to nail hog farmers up
against the wall. The Walkerton crisis
has caused all of us to question our
drinking water quality, and as a result
many of us have tested our wells.
Approximately 40 per cent of all the
water samples tested show some sign
of bacterial contamination of one sort
or another. This is pretty scary stuff!
As a pork producer I feel the
media blames us as hog producers for
being the main source of water
contamination. Yes there have been a
few bad apples or some accidents
with hog manure lately that the press
has made sure everyone heard about,
but what about other possible causes
of water contamination.
Most of us by now must agree that
we have had way more than our share
of rainfall during May. June and our
latest soaker in early July to make
this millennium leap year stand out
from the past couple of years. There
has been a lot of surface water runoff
with these heavy rains that carry all
kinds of contaminants. Some of these
contaminants come from wildlife
such as deer. waterfowl, etc. and
some come from other types of
agriculture such as beef, dairy,
poultry and sheep for example, but
1 the worst one in my opinion is human
sewage from towns and cities that
take advantage of heavy rainfalls to
relieve their storage tanks. Most
towns and cities large and small have
sewage treatment facilities that can
handle small rainfalls but when heavy
rains hit they have to relieve their
storage tanks to prevent them from
overflowing. For some reason the
press never puts this kind of
information on the front page of the
newspaper like where most liquid,
hog manure spills end up.
At our last Perth County Pork
Producers meeting in early June
Clare Schlegel told us that Ernie
Hardeman assured Ontario Pork that
they will introduce a bill that will
PERTH COUNTY
PORK PRODUCERS'
PORK PRODUCTS
• Smoked Pork Chops • Fresh Pork Chops
• Stuffed Loin Chops • Smoked Sausage
• Smoked Cheddar Sausage • Bacon Burgers
• Teriyaki Pork Steaks • Vittorio's BBQ Sauce
AVAILABLE FROM:
Steve Hulshof (Kinkora) 348-8167
Martin van Bakel (Dublin) 345-2666
Walter Bosch (Monkton) 356-9000
Ted Keller (Mitchell) 348-9836
address water quality issues as a
result of pressures caused by the
Walkerton crisis. It looks like farmers
will be affected as well. Time will
tell.
As farmers we have to stick
together and use our farm
organizations to make sure any new
regulations are fair to everyone
involved whether it's factory waste or
city sewage or agricultural waste. We
must also educate our urban friends
and neighbours because quite often
they only know what they read in the
newspaper.
We as producers have to prove to
the public that our hog industry is
environmentally acceptable or else
the public will force our governments
and municipalities to put rules and
regulations in place which will have
a negative impact on the future of our
industry.0
— Submitted by John H. Nvenhuis
THE PERTH COUNTY
PORK PRODUCERS
ASSOCIATION
Annual Golf
Tournament
Wednesday,
August 16, 2000
Mitchell Golf & Country
Club
Contact:
Joanne Groenestege
at 519-393-5532 for
tee off times
AUGUST 2000 61