The Union Farmer Quarterly/Fall 2001

Ste. Marie de Kent used to be just another quiet Acadian village, its houses and farms spread out along the banks of the Bouctouche River north of Moncton, New Brunswick. The people, French- and English-speaking, worked in agriculture, the fishery, tourism or small businesses, went to church, raised their families, helped their neighbours. Then overnight everything changed.

In May of 1999, a German entrepreneur named Gunther Metz, strongly backed by the New Brunswick government, began construction on a 10-000-hog mega-barn on a 50-acre lot on a back road in Ste Marie. He secured a contract to supply Hub Meat Packers, Maple Leaf's plant in Moncton, and signed up some local farmers to accept pig manure on their land. By mid-September, the first shipment of pigs had arrived, although the barn was not yet completed nor the manure lagoon operational.

The citizens of Ste Marie had been informed of the project in June, and had immediately expressed their opposition. Within weeks they had done their homework. They formed the Committee Against Hog Factories, held meetings with government representatives, organized protest rallies, and began preparing for legal action against the government and Metz Farms.

The specific problems the citizens identified were many, and alarming. The barn and lagoon were built next to a spring, without hydrogeological testing and without meeting licensing specifications. The manure management plan was flawed, there was no emergency plan, and the required monitoring wells were not in place. The air pollution had practically put an end to outdoor activities downwind from the barn, and was causing health problems for elderly residents and people with asthma. But that was only the beginning.

Over the summer and fall, the fight continued and escalated. The citizens kept an eye on the site, and on more than one occasion observed septic service and excavation equipment pumping liquid out of the lagoon and repacking it. They took water samples for testing, and were told by the Environment Ministry that the high levels of fecal coliform in a spring less than 100 feet from the lagoon could be coming from wild animals in the area.

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Transfer interrupted!

Yet they persisted. Their local meetings were drawing 200-300 people; allies included the Bouctouche First Nation, the Conservation Council of New Brunswick and the French-language press; contacts were being made in other provinces and in the US. In February of 2000, the group swept the Local Service District Council elections, filling all five seats with anti-hog-factory representatives. A local resident donated the use of an aging wooden building not far from the pig barn; it was promptly converted it into an office and headquarters for the newly formed "Poop Patrol". This was an agreement by people in the area to watch the manure spreading operations and note any infractions.

There were soon plenty to note. "Poop" was being spread after heavy rain on saturated fields, and when heavy rain was forecasted. Pasture fields had been identified as "hay and forage" and thus received higher applications. Residents reported manure spills, spreading through springs and within buffer zones along watercourses, even a tanker-sprayer stuck in the mud at the edge of one field.

In October of 2000, the exasperated citizens rallied in a spontaneous action which seriously disrupted the spreading. Residents near the pig barn used cell phones to alert others when a truck was loaded and about to leave. As the truck reached the corner of the main road, a tractor would pull out in front of it and crawl along, closely followed by other vehicles. If the manure truck pulled out to pass, one of the cars ahead of it would do the same. At one point there were close to 200 vehicles involved, proceeding along the two-lane country road at a dignified pace, the tractor leading the parade, and the poop truck trailing along at the end.

Naturally, Mr. Metz was not pleased. Within days he was in court again, demanding an injunction and initiating lawsuits against three of the citizens for damages. The same obliging judge promptly granted a temporary injunction, essentially prohibiting any local citizen, anyone acting on their behalf, and "all persons having notice and/or knowledge of this order" from in any way interfering with the transport or spreading operation, or "watching, besetting, picketing, loitering, congregating" at or near the pig barn or any of the spreading sites. The citizens successfully fought the permanent version of this extraordinary injunction, but it was reinstated by a higher court and is still in effect.

The people of Ste Marie doggedly carried on, holding meetings, monitoring operations, researching issues, attempting to meet with politicians and officials, working with other like-minded groups. They set up a website (see the "Pigs, Poop, Politics" heading at www.mondata.com/action) and developed relations with the media. Representatives travelled to Fredericton to try to talk to the government, and to North Carolina for a conference on mega-barns in that afflicted state.

Then in March of 2001, nine citizens of Ste Marie piled into a borrowed van and travelled through snow and sleet to London, Ontario, for the conference on ILOs organized by NFU member Don Mills and the Sierra-ALERT Coalition. Sleep-deprived and battle-weary, but undaunted, they told their story in French and English, showed their slides, joined in the strategizing, and inspired everyone with their humour, their passion and their creative rural street-smarts.

On Friday July 20th, 2001, after months of fruitless attempts to have the government address their concerns, the citizens of Ste Marie walked into the offices of the Ministry of Agriculture in Bouctouche and refused to leave. They were demanding a meeting with Premier Bernard Lord. They stayed for eighteen days round the clock - dozens of people, old and young, taking shifts, with others picketing outside on the main highway through town.

Word went out on the electronic grapevine and support began to flow in. It was Tuesday when the National Farmers Union heard about the occupation, called the Ministry and got one of the protestors on the line. Action soon followed: phone calls and letters by individual members, a formal letter from the NFU to the Premier, and a media release under the heading: "Farmers Union Supports Citizens of Ste Marie."

"As farmers, the NFU across Canada shares many of the concerns being expressed by the citizens, some of whom are farmers themselves" the press release stated. "The NFU believes that huge industrial-scale intensive livestock operations compete unfairly with smaller family farms, and undermine the environmental and economic base for other local enterprises. This kind of operation should not be allowed to give farming a bad name."

That morning, July 31st, the story was carried widely, even beyond the Maritimes - a major farm organization speaking out against the mega-barn! Given the stout defence of Metz Farms by certain other farm groups, this was newsworthy indeed. We were later told that our press release and the resulting coverage did wonders for the morale of the beleaguered citizens involved in the occupation.

Its effect on Mr. Metz and his friends was rather different. That same afternoon the phone calls started - from Metz, from his farm manager, from officials of other farm and commodity groups with whom they had cultivated alliances. NFU officials found themselves spending hours on the phone explaining the Union's situation and the reasons for the Union's position.

The next day the lawyer's letter came.

Actually, Mr. Metz's threat of legal action against the Union was only the latest in a series of at least seven such threats. For the opponents of the hog factory, such lawyers' letters were almost routine by now. One of the Ste. Marie people who had been in London called to offer support. "Welcome to the family!" he said. "We have a strange way of showing our affection..." Another wrote: "Feel free to call at any time. We are still in the same situation as you, with the threat of a lawsuit hanging over our heads. The reason we are still fighting is the support of people like the NFU and the knowledge that the truth will eventually prevail…"

The citizens ended their occupation of the Ministry offices when Premier Lord set up an "Experts' Committee" to look into the situation in Ste Marie. The NFU was among the many groups and individuals who made submissions, and the Committee is expected to report soon. If there is any justice at all, it will find a way to recommend the closing of the hog factory and point to a more sustainable direction for live-stock agriculture in the province. The people of Ste Marie de Kent may eventually be able to breathe again.