Johanne(f): 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.
HOST: 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.