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PLANET EARTH: OUR LOVING HOME
The Devastating Effects of a Pig Factory Farm - P1/2
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I had promised myself
I’d do everything I could
to have this river cleaned up.
I was hoping I could
get this river cleaned up
before I die.
I was hoping, until I
heard about the pig farm.
And when I heard about
the pig farm I said,
“No way! It’s impossible,
they won’t let it happen.
They can’t do that.”
And they did.
Hallo, caring viewers,
and welcome to
Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home.
Today’s episode
focuses on the
enormous environmental,
socio-economic
and public health costs
caused by
a commercial pig farm
located in Quebec, Canada.
Animal agriculture has
a severely negative effect
on the air, water, and
land and all life that lives
within these three realms.
The livestock industry
uses 70% of
all agricultural lands
globally and nearly a third
of the ice-free terrestrial
surface of the planet.
Virgin rainforests
are felled to make way
for pastures which soon
become permanently bare
from cattle grazing.
Factory farms generate
enormous quantities
of hazardous manure
and other organic matter
that are filled with
pathogens and
antibiotic residues
that seep into rivers,
lakes and seas.
Livestock waste
fouls the air
with huge amounts
of greenhouse gases.
According to the paper
“Livestock and
Climate Change”
published in
World Watch Magazine
and written by
former and current
environmental experts
from the World Bank,
Robert Goodland
and Jeff Anhang,
the livestock sector
is responsible
for more than 51% of
all human-caused global
greenhouse gas emissions.
The industry also
accounts for the release
of 37% of all
human-caused emissions
of the highly dangerous
greenhouse gas methane.
Ms. Johanne Dion
and her husband
Tim Yeatman live in
the small town of Richelieu
which is located
by the Richelieu River
in Quebec.
A factory farm
housing 5,800 pigs
was built in their area
and life has now become
truly nightmarish
for the couple
and the beauty of the land
has eroded away.
We now present excerpts
from interviews
with Ms. Dion
and Mr. Yeatman
about the many ways
this pig operation
is seriously affecting
their lives and those of
others in their community.
You see the Richelieu River
just in front 100 meters
away from these farms
and the water intake
for three cities
is just about four
or five kilometers away
and all the slurry
that's been spread around
is washed away
by the rain into the river.
I moved around
the province of Quebec
a lot in my career
with IBM of 34 years,
which enabled me
to swim in a lot of rivers.
People are trying
to harness the rivers, and
use them as sewage dumps
for piggeries.
When I met Johanne,
this Richelieu River
in probably 1984; I think
it was still swimmable.
It’s not swimmable anymore.
Now we are surrounded
by at least four different
pig farms.
I was aware about
the year 2000 that the
government was pushing
big pig farms, actually.
Pork production was
the main topic
in the agricultural sector
around here.
I was aware of the problems
that this brought to
the people living around
these pig facilities.
I saw in the local newspaper
on the front page
that we would have
a 5,800-pig farm up river
from here.
I couldn’t believe it.
I was shocked.
For the past 15 years,
I have been working
to get the Richelieu River
cleaned up
because it was getting
more and more polluted.
And I want to work on that.
My ultimate goal
was to be able to
swim in the river again
before I died.
Pigs generate three times
more waste than humans do.
For those pigs
raised in factory farms,
their manure contains
viruses, parasites,
hormones, ammonia,
heavy metals,
and antibiotic-resistant
bacteria.
The slurry’s been spread
all over the place and
the fields are now drained.
All the streams
have been straightened out.
So, every time it rains,
the river changes
its color completely.
At the bottom of the river,
there is this slimy stuff
that makes it
absolutely disgusting.
Municipal sewage
is treated.
The industrial effluents
are treated.
But farmers can
go right ahead and
spread untreated sewage,
untreated manure
on fields that are
so efficiently drained that
everything goes straight,
either into streams,
or seeps into the ground,
and contaminates
underground water.
All the arguments are there.
In 1995, a one hectare
manure lagoon
in North Carolina, USA
burst, releasing
97.6- million liters
of sewage
into the New River.
The event was the largest
environmental spill
in US history, more than
twice as large as
the Exxon Valdez oil spill
in 1989.
Consequently millions
of fish perished
along with all other beings
living in the river.
The two manure pits
that contain
millions and millions
of liters of pigs’ slurry.
They are made out of
reinforced concrete.
And they are built on clay.
In our climate,
clay freezes and thaws,
moves up and down.
Even our basements crack
and concrete cracks
eventually.
In the long-term,
there could be
a catastrophic spill.
There could be an accident
that could severely
impede the water quality
of the Richelieu River
and our water intake
for our water.
After these brief messages,
we’ll return with more
from our interviews
with Mr. Yeatman
and Ms. Dion concerning
commercial pig farming
in Richelieu, Canada.
Please stay tuned
to Supreme Master
Television.
My life
has completely changed
in the past 30 years.
It’s gone from paradise
to polluted mayhem.
Welcome back to
Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home
on Supreme Master
Television.
Our program today examines
how a pig factory farm
in Richelieu,
Quebec, Canada
releasing huge amounts
of toxins and pollutants
into the environment is
impacting local residents.
Six kilometers away
you can smell it terribly
sometimes.
One day last summer
I went into town,
and standing in
the Ikea parking lot.
I was having trouble
breathing because of
the disgusting smell,
not because it was
physically bothering me,
it was mentally bothering me.
And when we’re
a kilometer and a half
from the other side
of the farm from town,
sometimes
it is really disgusting.
We like to drive out
in the country around here
on a motorbike.
Sometimes in the fall
when they’re emptying out
their reservoirs
of liquid pig manure,
you can’t even breathe
for probably
two or three minutes.
When Ms. Dion is at home,
how long a period of time
does she typically have to
endure the appalling smell
of the manure?
For hours a day.
It depends
on the wind direction, it
depends on the humidity
and the climatic conditions,
and it depends if they’re
cleaning up the barn or not,
it depends if they’re
spreading or not, it
depends on the heat also,
the hotter it is the more
they have to turn up the fans
to evacuate the air
from the barns.
So of course that
spreads the smell around
pretty good.
So, it’s punctual
but I can tell you that
I’ve smelled pig in March
and they’re been
spreading in October
and in November,
even if the law says
they’re not allowed
to spread after October 1,
they can have
special permission
and they do it anyways.
According to research
done in the United States,
a concentrated
animal feeding operation
can decrease the value
of neighboring homes
by up to 40%.
A lot of people will tell you
what we hate
about pig farms
is the smell.
That bothers a lot of people.
It bothers them that
their house is devalued.
They try to sell it.
Some have been able to,
but some haven’t.
And some moved out
when they heard
about this pig farm.
They just moved out,
selling their houses or not,
they just left.
What are some
of the physical and
psychological issues that
those living in the vicinity
of a pig farm experience?
About the people
being sick around here,
when there was
spreading (manure) with
guns spraying in the air,
I noticed
that within 48 hours
I would have diarrhea.
That I noticed.
We personally know
one person,
who lives very near
to that pig farm.
Some of their fields are
in their back yard, and
they have a stream running
right by their property.
Every time
after either a heavy rain
or after they spread
their liquid manure
onto the fields,
she gets deathly ill
and has to
go on those respirators.
A lot of people have
stress-associated problems
because of
the pig farms – allergies,
thyroid problems,
high blood pressure
(and) depression.
Pig manure emits
over 168 kinds of gases,
including ammonia and
the hazardous greenhouse
gases hydrogen sulfide
and methane.
University of Iowa, USA
researchers have found
that children
who attend schools
near factory farms
may be at higher risk
of having asthma.
We have another friend
who does not live
in the area anymore,
but her back yard
was backing on the fields
that were being sprayed
on that farm.
Her baby was born
asthmatic.
We can’t necessarily
attribute that to the farm,
but we can tell you
that her second oldest
is also asthmatic.
She has three children and
two of the three children
are asthmatic.
And they’re not old kids.
The oldest is seven, and
the youngest is now three.
Another neighbor,
who wished to
remain anonymous,
described to us
how his family had been
affected by the unbearably
suffocating stench
emanating by the rotting
pig carcasses and feces.
We cannot breathe.
It’s the ammonia.
We lack air.
There have been days
when we had to leave.
We leave in the morning,
we return in the evening
when the winds have
changed direction.
An estimated 70% of
antibiotics used in the US
are administered to cattle
to speed growth and
to ensure they survive
the horrendously filthy,
disease-laden conditions
in which
they are made to live.
The widespread abuse
of these drugs
by the livestock industry
has led to
the rapid evolution
of antibiotic-resistant
bacteria or “super bugs.”
They are fed antibiotics,
minimum doses in their feed.
But they are still fed on
antibiotics to be able to
gain weight faster
and we wonder
why our antibiotics are
not working anymore.
They are in our meat.
Very questionable practices.
Pig farms are
breeding grounds for MRSA
(Methicillin Resistant
Staphylococcus Aureus)
and super bugs that are
antibiotic resistant.
We’re always
afraid of catching
antibiotic- resistance bugs
like MRSA and staph
and strep.
We thank Johanne Dion,
Tim Yeatman
and other residents
of Richelieu, Quebec
for speaking to us
about their experiences of
living near a factory farm
including sharing
how the massive amounts
of pollution generated
from this operation
is causing
tremendous physical
and emotional suffering.
Please join us again
next Wednesday
on Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home
for Part 2 of our program
on pig farming’s effects
on the town of Richelieu.
Treasured viewers
thank you for
your noble company
today on Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home.
Coming up next is
Enlightening Entertainment
after Noteworthy News.
May we all soon choose
the safe and nutritious
organic vegan diet so that
the livestock industry
ends forever.
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