See http://www.allaboutfeed.net/news/chile-pigs-starve-as-locals-protest-against-odour-13284.html
Now something doesn't add up. In this article we have 500 000 pigs in the Agrosuper facility. Then we have the minister of health Jaime Manalich giving two very telling statistics about the selfsame plant. Lets have a look at these stats and try and draw some conclusions. In doing this, I will make some assumptions, but state these upfront. The reader is thereby enabled to understand the conclusions in the light of the assumptions, and change the assumptions for themselves if necessary - do a bit of "what-if" analysis perhaps.
1. There are "30 000 tons of hogs"
2. There are "50 000 gestating sows giving birth every day".
Let's start by assuming an "average pig weight" : Firstly, there are clearly mainly females and babies in the plant (the adult boars are excluded, because their flesh is rendered less succulent because of the testosterone). The young pigs are slaughtered around 6-7 months (approx 113kg in weight). Adult sows can weigh from 400 to 700 pounds - lets say 500lb (227kg). Bearing in mind statement 2. above, we know there will be an enormous number of young piglets (5-10kg say?). Let's therefore guess an "average pig weight" of 70kg.
Then, 30 000 tonnes of hogs at our assumed average weight, translates into about 429 000 pigs, so that's roughly correct. If we divide the tonnage by the number of hogs, we get an average weight of 60kg, so let's use that from now on.
Let's switch to the 2nd statement for a moment, and assume there are indeed 50000 gestating sows giving birth daily. A pig is a prolific breeder and litters can number up to 10 piglets. Let's assume 50% infant mortality = 5 surviving piglets per litter. That equates to 250000 piglets from 50000 sows per day. Let's go a bit further. A sow's gestation period is 4 months and the piglets are removed from the sow at a month of age. That means after 5 months she is ready to be artificially inseminated again, which is exactly what happens. In a period of 5 months, there are around 150 days. Now multiply 50 000 sows giving birth daily by 150 days, and you have ....7.5 million sows, and a gross total of 37.5 million surviving piglets. Even if the good minister got an extra zero by accident and there were 10 times less sows giving birth daily, this would still be 750 000 sows and 3.75 million surviving piglets, which is around 8 times more pigs than what is being officially reported for this one farm!
Let's assume the minister got it wrong and there were "only" 750 000 sows and 3.75 million growing juvenile piglets on the premises at any one time - after all somebody cheated a bit with the adult population housed, and nobody counts the piglets, because they're being moved off to slaughter, aren't they?
From a different website, discussing guidelines for manure management, a silo storage tank 120ft diameter and 14ft deep may be adequate to store dung from 240 sows, farrow to finish (note, the dung from the piglets are excluded here). At 39.37 inches per metre, this is a volume of 4483 cubic meters.
Now think about 750 000 sows at the Agrosuper facility. That's 14 million cubic meters of dung every 150 days, and that's only the sows - not the young pigs. That's over 90 000 cubic meters a day. A pile 100 meters in length and width and over 9 metres high - every day.
And in Belarus, they note that "there is no demand" for sale of pig manure between farmers. Not surprising, is it? And runoff from the manure deposits on the surface of the soil, pose a most serious threat to rivers and estuaries - to the tune of 35 million to 40 million cubic metres (per annum, presumably).
So the clever Canadians (in Manitoba) come along and decide that the way to go is to "inject" the waste into the ground, instead to trying to spread it over the surface. I wonder if they've thought how long it may be before this poison infiltrates the aquifer and pollutes the artesian fresh water sources, used for drinking and irrigation? Maybe the author of this bit of nonsense is hoping they'll be on retirement by the time it happens - which means its "somebody else's" problem. Typical human reaction of applying sticking plaster to the symptom instead of resolving the root cause of the problem - which is too much "farming", too many animals, too much flesh consumed daily. Cut down (or cut out now), for the sake of your own health*, as well as that of the planet.
[*Wait till you find out what's in the meat - hormones, antibiotics, steroids - you name it. That's what's fed to the pigs to get them to be leaner and to put on weight faster, as well as trying to stave off the infections caused by a huge degree of overcrowding. And for humans, this means a significant cancer risk, amongst other health problems]
And the Russians? They're building a larger facility than even the Chileans, which will be complete by 2018. Not to mention the Chinese, who have Coking coal and steel producers who are now going into hog production. The Chinese are the largest consumers of pork in the world. Wonder what they do with their manure?
See also the url below which refers specifically to the problem of waste disposal with the enormous numbers of pigs being "farmed" in these massive factory farms.
http://www.earthtimes.org/
Besides - pigs are the most widely eaten flesh worldwide - so the problem is many times the magnitude of cattle.
Did I mention the mass factory farming of chickens, goats, turkeys, and lately - rabbits? Talk about getting into shit. We are.
Something to think about perhaps....
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