Prairie Swine Centre Offers Access to Science Based Information on Intensive Livestock Production
Farmscape for July 23, 2004 (Episode 1565) The Prairie Swine Centre is encouraging anyone with an interest in environmental issues related to intensive livestock operations to visit the 'Environmental Issues Resources Centre.' The Environmental Issues Resource Centre is an on-line database that's available at prairieswine.ca. The multi-species project is administered by the Prairie Swine Centre in conjunction with pork producer organizations in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Prairie Swine Centre Information Services Assistant Manager Ken Engele says the database contains a comprehensive list of science based articles related to intensive livestock production. Clip-Ken Engele-Prairie Swine Centre Basically the resource is provided for anybody that's looking for information on the livestock industry. Pork producers, for instance, that want to build a new operation and they're looking at what kind of regulations are permitted in Saskatchewan or Alberta, for example, can go on line and dig up some of this information in a one stop shop. In addition to that any municipal regulators, let's say they have a hog operation coming into their area, they can come to this web site as a resource. We actually have 14 different chapters and they encompass things like human health and livestock operations, legislation, manure management, nutrient management, odor control siting, soil and water quality, traffic and sociology issues dealing with the site. In addition to the information contained on the database on the web site, we actually have written chapters both in French and English which basically provide a comprehensive literature review of each one of those chapters. Engele says the project is designed to provide an unbiased list of science based articles related to intensive livestock operations and their interaction with the environment and it should be of value to anyone seeking such information, whether they are for or against intensive livestock production. For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane. *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council