Voluntary Environmental Management System Standard Expected by December
CANADA - Farm-Scape: Episode 1301. Farm-Scape is a Wonderworks Canada production and is distributed courtesy of Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork.
17 July 2003
3 minute read
  Farm-Scape is sponsored by
Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork  Play AudioFarm-Scape is a Wonderworks Canada production and is distributed courtesy of Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork. |
Farm-Scape, Episode 1301
A new voluntary environmental management systems standard for swine operations is scheduled to be ready for implementation by the end of this year.
The environmental management systems standard is being developed by the Canadian Standards Association with direction from a technical committee comprised of a cross section of industry stakeholders and government representatives.
A pilot implementation study was conducted this spring to assess the draft and identify areas where the standard could be improved or clarified.
CSA Project Manager Environment Kelly Deeton says the standard is being updated now and the technical committee will meet in about a month to finalize its content.
"The audits were set to assess the conformance of the 12 farms who participated in the pilot to our draft standard.
The audits were conducted by independent third party auditors and that was done in April.
Basically the purpose of that was to test the operational feasibility, the affordability and the auditability of the draft standard.
Where we revised the standard was when the pilot results indicated there was a problem with the operational feasibility of a requirement or the affordability of implementing it or it was difficult for the auditors to interpret.
When we had a low rating in any of those three areas, we went back and we tweaked the requirements so that it would work better.
I can say that the environmental integrity of the standard was not compromised by the revisions that were made and it should hopefully be easier for farmers to implement".
Deeton says, once the technical committee has completed its review some time in September, the document will be turned over to the CSA editing and production group for final editing.
She says publication is scheduled for December at which time the standard will be ready for voluntary implementation.
