Pork producers urged to trumpet environmental triumph of high yield agriculture

The Alberta pork industry should embrace the environmental advantage of confined feeding and should do so immediately, says a prominent analyst of global food issues.

In a presentation at the annual meeting of Alberta Pork, the organization representing the province's pork producers, Dennis Avery, director of the Centre for Global Food Issues in Churchville, Virginia, urged Alberta pork producers to emphasize the environmental advantages of high yield confined feeding agricultural operations in response to mounting opposition from environmental activist organizations.

"The only alternative to intensive livestock management practices are extensive livestock management practices," says Avery. "High yield agriculture has saved the planet 16 million square miles that, based on consumer demand, would otherwise be used for food production. It allows us to meet that demand from less land and leaves more land for wildlife. Consequently, it protects the general public from the effects of massive production."

Avery says the agricultural community needs to reach out to consumers. "You live in a world of environmentally concerned citizens. You have a good news story here but it's not being told. And if you continue not to tell it, you'll leave consumers little choice but to err on the side of the environmental activists."

The growing consumer demand for "organic" meat products raised as free-range livestock is a consequence of the influence of organizations such as Greenpeace, says Avery. However, he believes many of the production practices associated with organic farming actually spell a step backwards for the livestock industry and hold potential for the spread of animal borne diseases.

"Confinement feeding defends humans and animals from communicable diseases such as avian influenza," he says. "If high yield production practices were widely used in areas of the world such as China, we likely wouldn't have an avian influenza problem today." The World Health Organization is urging China towards confinement feeding to guide public health.

Avery says eco-groups have failed to recognize the advantages of high yield farming. "Take chemical fertilizer, for example. If chemical fertilizer wasn't actively used on crops, we would need the manure from five to seven billion cattle to produce enough to meet consumer demand. There would be no room for wildlife. It would be a prescription for environmental and economic disaster."

Additionally, the growing global demand for bio-fuel based ethanol, seen by many as an environmentally sustainable solution to energy demands, is actually an environmental red flag, says Avery. "We'd have to clear 50 million acres of forest to supply even 10 percent of North America's liquid fuel demand with ethanol," he says. "It's simply not environmentally sustainable."

Ultimately, it's up to producers to inform consumers of the environmental value of high yield farm practices, says Avery. The first step is for producers to be aware of it themselves. "We can't be afraid of criticism of our production practices, especially dishonest criticism. Groups like Greenpeace are calling the shots because we do not call our own."

Alberta Pork represents more than 1,000 pork producers in the province. The industry produces more than 3.5 million hogs each year. The overall agriculture industry directly and indirectly generates one out of three jobs in the province. For more information on Alberta's pork industry, visit the Alberta Pork Web site at www.albertapork.com.

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