Lake Winnipeg most threatened in world in 2013

"CrazyNewfie" said
We desperately need to rethink what we're doing to this planet, I shutter to think the world we are leaving behind for the next few generations. Our legacy will not be good, we will be remembered as the generation that destroyed our environment for nothing but greed and love of money and power...it disgusts me. I hope the next generation learns from our mistakes and can find a way to undo what were doing.

"Zipperfish" said
Lake Winnipeg is fixable. The same thing threatened the Great Lakes in the 60s. Stringent source control should rectify the situation--specifically not allowing discharges of nutrient-laden untreated effluents such as sewage discharges and agricultural runoff into the lake.

"BartSimpson" said
I'm calling BS on this. A Canadian lake is the most endangered in the world? More so than one in environmentally sensitive countries like China, Russia, Brazil, India, or Africa?

I don't think so.

"Robair" said
I'm calling BS on this. A Canadian lake is the most endangered in the world? More so than one in environmentally sensitive countries like China, Russia, Brazil, India, or Africa?

I don't think so.

"BartSimpson" said
I'm calling BS on this. A Canadian lake is the most endangered in the world? More so than one in environmentally sensitive countries like China, Russia, Brazil, India, or Africa?

I don't think so.

The so-called Manitoba Pork Advantage was unleashed in November 1996 with great fanfare at a posh downtown hotel reception designed to lure new investment into the hog sector.

"The Manitoba Pork Advantage is a concentrated and co-ordinated effort across the hog industry that could result in millions of dollars in new economic activity in Manitoba's pork industry, and create hundreds of new jobs," then-Premier Gary Filmon told his audience. "It's the goal, it's the game plan, let's go out and do it."

This wasn't so much about encouraging farmers to expand or diversify into hogs as it was about attracting non-traditional investors -- doctors, lawyers and the like -- who were looking for places to plant their money and watch it grow.

Promotional material in circulation at the time promised investors "a vast land of promise," citing five-year statistics that showed an average 14.55 per cent return on swine production assets. Find a mutual fund to beat that.

In fact, the province moved quickly after the federal government axed the rail freight subsidies for export grains in 1995 to remove control of pork marketing from farmers' hands in a bid to attract the kind of outside investment it felt was needed to grow the industry. The assumption was that Manitoba would have the lowest feed costs in North America, which would give it a competitive advantage.

Large-scale, investor-driven operators didn't want to sell through the single-desk marketing board that dealt with the packers on farmers' behalf. The new pork powerhouses wanted to contract directly with the packers. Some of them are now owned by packers. They were already circumventing the system by selling pigs into the U.S. market.

So the single-desk selling system was made voluntary against the wishes of many producers. But the decision was rationalized in part by the argument that a more flexible marketing system would keep more hogs and more processing jobs here in Manitoba.

Manitoba includes an area of almost 650,000 square kilometres. The province has a population of about 1.1 million people, of which more than half live in the capital city of Winnipeg. There are more than 5 million hectares of land suitable for agricultural production.
...
Pig production has increased more than sevenfold from 870,000 in 1975 to 7.3 million currently. Manitoba is now Canada's third largest pork-producing province with about 24 per cent of national production and about six per cent of North American production. Pig production is the most valuable agricultural commodity in Manitoba, worth about $792 million (Canadian dollars) in 2003. There are 16,000 to 17,000 people employed by the pig industry in Manitoba. Economic spin-off to the provincial economy is estimated at $2 billion.
...
Data collected by Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives indicates that, for the past nine years, an average of 26,227 sow places and 97,938 feeder pig places were built each year. Pig production companies have driven much of the expansion. Significant growth has also been achieved by individual producers and members of the Hutterite Brethren.

From back bacon to smoked ham, Canada exports over $2 billion of pork, making us one of the world's top exporters. But what's good for the economy hasn't been good to the environment. The problem is manure. Canada's 15 million pigs produce enough waste to fill Toronto's SkyDome every 22 days.

A total of 23 charges have been laid against a pair of hog-barn operators in a case of alleged animal cruelty the province�s chief vet says is the most extensive he�s ever seen.
The charges laid under the province�s Animal Care Act and regulations involve a Notre Dame de Lourdes couple who ran a hog barn that burned down in June, shortly after police launched an investigation into the operation.
Court documents name Martin Albert Joseph Grenier and Dolores Donna Grenier of the R.M. of Lorne as co-accused in the case.
More than 2,000 hogs were found at the barn after an RCMP investigation June 18. Roughly 400 of the animals were dead or dying, while another 160 were later destroyed.
The hogs were owned by a nearby Hutterite colony, which alerted the RCMP after colony members were denied access to the animals.
The barn went up in flames less than a week later, a blaze described as suspicious by a spokesman for the Office of the Fire Commissioner.
Charges laid this week include:
failure to provide adequate food and water to more than 2,000 pigs,
failing to provide adequate medical attention to hundreds of wounded or ill animals, and
confining more than 2,400 animals in a space with inadequate ventilation, according to court documents.
The couple also stand accused of inflicting "serious injury or harm" on 10 pigs, the documents state, and failing to consult a vet on the death of more than 200 animals.
Other charges relate to the condition of the facility, with court documents pointing to a slatted floor "broken in a way to allow the pigs to fall through the floor and drown," or become trapped and unable to get free.
The charges date between May 15 and June 18 of this year.
"This is an extremely unusual case," said chief veterinary officer Dr. Wayne Lees. "The vast majority of producers take great pride in their animals, and fully abide by the codes of practice and animal welfare standards."
Lees wouldn�t discuss details of the investigation, but said the case is more extensive than any he�s seen before.
"I�ve never come across one that involved this many animals in my career," he said.
The couple is set to appear in court in December.
The offences occurred prior to recently proclaimed amendments to the Animal Care Act, meaning maximum penalties are up to six months in prison or up to $5,000 per charge, rather than the steeper, up to $10,000 figure now in place for a first offence.
An investigation into the case by Crystal City RCMP is "still active and ongoing," said RCMP spokesman Const. Mile Hiebert.
Hiebert said he�s been told investigators are awaiting consultation from the Crown regarding further charges.