Farm-Scape is sponsored by Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork Play Audio Farm-Scape is a Wonderworks Canada production and is distributed courtesy of Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork.

Farm-Scape, Episode 1483

The Canadian Standards Association is confident the benefits to by obtained from a new environmental management systems standard for Canadian swine producers will drive its adoption.

The new national environmental management systems standard for Canadian hog operations was developed by a CSA Technical Committee made up of representatives of the pork industry, federal and provincial governments, environmental groups and consumers.

CSA Standards Development Director John Walter says the expectation is that producers will recognize the benefits of adopting the voluntary standard.

"First of all this should improve the overall environmental performance. Secondly it should assist them to have improved efficiencies in their operation and the reduction of resource use and waste, that kind of thing.

Given that it's a voluntary standard, we would hope that the marketplace might drive the usage of this.

I think we get better results when industry sees the value of a standard and then voluntarily uses it. There's a commitment, there's an energy behind it and it works well. The one thing that I find interesting is that Canadian hog farmers invest an average of over six thousand dollars on environmental improvements compared to an average of one thousand dollars invested by other farmers.

I think that's a really good message that we have a responsible group of operators who say, 'we understand that our operations can impact on the environment.

We are spending money to reduce that. We are spending time. We are taking a leadership role.' I think somebody should congratulate them. It's something that everyone in Canada would want to see happen".

Walter says the standard focuses on identifying a hog operation's potential adverse impacts on the environment, minimizing those impacts and, in the event something does happen, managing any potential adverse consequences.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.