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.

Hallo, esteemed viewers, and welcome to Planet Earth: Our Loving Home. Today’s episode is Part 2 of our program focusing 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 further 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.

I was born here in Richelieu. My parents came from Montreal (Canada) when they got married. They loved the river. They loved having the countryside in the back. We had orchards, and cows in the fields, and all kinds of vegetables and fruits in the backyard. Across the road we have a river and I’ve spent all my life here by the Richelieu River. In the summertime, it attracts a lot of people.

They come and swim in the river even though it’s polluted now. People don’t know and especially if we have a dry spell, the water gets clear and some city folks still swim in the river. It attracts a lot of people. A lot of people walk by here, especially when the sun is out like today, and admire the view and the birds. It’s very nice around here.

So you love your town very much?

Yes, my river is very important to me. Swimming when I was a child was the thing I loved the most doing. I spent a lot of time by the river and nature also is very important to me. I have a garden here around the house. As you can see I am surrounded by the plants in my house. So nature, plants, everything around me is very important to me. My environment is important for me.

There are a total of four pig farms within the region surrounding Richelieu. The foul odors caused by the farms are so strong that people moving to the area may decide where to reside based on the intensity of the smell they are willing to live with.

Quebec is the largest pig producer in Canada. And Canada is the largest pig producing per capita country in the world. So Quebec has lot of smelly places. And people decided that they were going to start businesses to try to make money off the smells. They made a map which showed, according to different wind directions and velocities, what parts of the neighborhood would be exposed to different smells.

When the wind is to the south coming down the river towards the north, because this river runs south- north from Lake Champlain, the smell will come from the farms which are basically on the Richelieu River, south of us, and come up the river, because it’s an open water space. And they just get blown right by the house here and you can smell it like crazy.

According to a 2005 study on terrestrial eco-regions by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), some 306 of Earth’s 825 known regions are facing threats from livestock production. Another analysis of the 35 global hotspots for biodiversity done by Conservation International reveals that 23 are now seriously affected by livestock production.

What surrounds the pig farms, are BT (Bacillus thuringiensis) corn. Practically the only crop that can grow in fields where pig’s manure has been spread is mostly BT corn. So we’re surrounded by genetically modified corn. I’ve seen butterfly populations go down. I’ve seen bird populations go down. I’ve seen summers when I didn’t see any honey bees at all. I’ve seen other summers that I haven’t seen any bumble bees at all. Some summers I can see a few. They come back a bit. But like last summer, I didn’t see any monarch butterflies enter migration at all.

After these brief messages, we will hear more about the severe damage caused by intensive animal farming in Richelieu, Canada. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

Welcome back to Planet Earth: Our Loving Home on Supreme Master Television. Our program today focuses on people who live within the vicinity of a concentrated animal feeding operation and are suffering because of the tremendous environmental devastation caused by this facility.

As an example, coliforms, a type of bacteria present in the feces of humans and mammals that make water undrinkable, has been found throughout the community’s water bodies and wells. Most noticeably, the local river has been severely fouled due to the presence of the pig farm. A summer camp in the area for children no longer lets participants near the Richelieu River.

They used to bring them during the summertime, during the daytime. The parents have been opposed to that because they’re afraid that the river’s too polluted and that the kids can catch infections by playing in the dirty river bottom. So that stopped. And of course, I deplore the fact that a lot of children now have all kind of allergies and asthma, something that I never suffered of. Is it the environment? Is it the pollution? You have to wonder.

The coliform in the river here after a rainfall, it goes way beyond what’s acceptable for swimming. Don’t even think about drinking it; forget it. It’s much too dangerous. But even touching it you risk catching a bad bug definitely, because the coliform count is so high, and that’s not counting the pathogens and the herbicides and the pesticides, and God knows what else.

I’m at least fourteen kilometers downstream from the pig farm. But still after a rainfall I can tell you that the coliform count here goes way up; it shoots way up.

Health Canada, the nation’s public health department, after studying cattle density in the rural areas of the province of Ontario in 2000 concluded that those communities with the highest concentrations of livestock had the highest rates of E. coli infection from 1990 to 1995. In Richelieu, the drinking water supply which was once sweet and pure is now contaminated due to the massive amounts of manure generated by the factory farm.

In the neighborhood that you know of, does anybody have wells that are contaminated?

Yes.

Can you tell us some more?

Well we didn’t test his well, okay. But his neighbor tested it, and did determine that they had not just coliform in their well; they had E. coli in their well.

What does it mean?

E. coli is what can kill you; coliform just gives you diarrhea.

The manure is spread on the fields using an aerial spray and then pollutes the region’s water as it washes into the streams and rivers and seeps into the water table following rainfalls. Ms. Dion believes that the act of spraying the waste into the air also sickens people as the wind disperses the disease-laden matter everywhere.

I must admit that I have much more frequent diarrhea in the spring time or when the water is dirty, when the river water gets brown. If I drink too much water out of the faucet, there's a good chance I have a diarrhea the next day. I went to the annual Public Health Day and I saw a study about people getting sick, getting diarrhea, because of living near either pig farms or cattle farms.

Years ago, Johanne Dion and Tim Yeatman helped to create a group seeking to prevent the opening of the nearby pig farm.

We formed a citizen’s group. We were 600 paid members. We did everything we could to stop it. I mean we petitioned. We had a petition going. We got a lot of attention from the media. We were in newspapers and on television.

Though unsuccessful in halting the opening of the factory farm, today Ms. Dion and Mr. Yeatman work hard to try and lessen the disastrous environmental consequences of its operation and strongly advocate for its closure.

I don’t see any changes being done and I am still working at it. I am joining all kinds of committees hoping to have people realize that it’s important that we keep our waterways clean. Already we’re depending on this river to have water to drink and it would be nice to swim in it again. My husband called Radio Canada on a talk show and said that farmers should be inspected more and their pollution should be checked more by our government.

In conclusion, Johanne Dion sincerely calls upon each of us to avoid making purchases that support factory farming.

It’s very hard to make people realized that you can change things by what you buy when you go to the grocery store. You can change things by saying, “I want this river cleaned up. I want to be able to swim in this river.”

Changing to an organic vegan diet is the simplest and quickest way to stop global warming and intensive animal agriculture and is something that we all can do very easily.

We thank Johanne Dion and Tim Yeatman and the other brave residents of Richelieu, Quebec for speaking out on the dangers the pig farm poses to their community. May all factory farming soon end so that our planet can be in balance once again and animals and humans can live in tranquility.

Caring viewers, thank you for your noble company on today’s episode of Planet Earth: Our Loving Home. Coming up next is Enlightening Entertainment following Noteworthy News. May the light and love of Heaven always be our guide.