The recent announcement of farmers out Galong and Moppity Road way committing to spreading Blantyre Farms proposed Piggery Poo got me thinking. Why cart the poo all the way across town when a more appropriate site for the piggery may well be found on their farms.

Their land ground water is probably less vulnerable to depletion and settling ponds less likely to leak, not to mention finding an area that isn’t in a drinking water catchment area, topography that gives a reliable prediction of odour movement, and a buffer zone that doesn’t compromise the sanctity of existing homes.

I’m sure a commercially satisfying long-term lease for all parties could be negotiated. And any future grain sales would be closer to home.

“It’s not a house it’s a home” is a phrase used by Daryl Kerrigan in the iconic movie ‘The Castle’ to juxtapose the developers’ view of a house as a building and Daryl’s feeling of his homes sanctity. 

Eventually the developers are stopped on the grounds that the impact is not “on just terms”.

One of the questions raised in this very vexing piggery proposal is to what extent does the broader community benefit out weigh this sanctity of the many householders on the southern edge of town and in the Cunningham Valley?

It’s not only householder sanctity at risk. Around a dozen surrounding farms will be devalued reducing their businesses capacity to grow and employ. These are businesses that support the local community year in year out. The environmental and heritage impact of such a large-scale intensive operation is a questionable fit to the site.

Is around 1.5 km of pig sheds with losses of 250 tonnes of pig and piglet carcasses yearly, all within 4.5km of the town’s boundary enhancing the community a lot of residence aspire to?

The proposed piggery will bring jobs and business to the area. Although most of those jobs are low skill and pay, they would be welcomed. Australia Pork Limited states that intensive Piggery jobs are hard to fill and tend to rely on casual labour. The inability to hold employees for the long term and health issues for workers is also well documented. These issues cloud the extent of the employment benefit.

Local businesses would be enhanced, although the full extent is questionable. Without long-term contracts to source grain, capital items or services locally, this support will be tempered by competing value outside our area. In short there are no guarantees, with a small number of direct beneficiaries. 

Most people are critical of the way politics is currently conducted. True democracy, (where space and respect is given for opposing views, middle ground is sort through the acknowledgement of shared values) is abdicated for polarization, personalisation and holding party lines. Unfortunately this same dynamic is happening in our community over the piggery debate.

We all want a healthy, wealthy and happy community where people feel connected and supported. A more respectful, patient and tolerant debate is needed to achieve this. Particularly when addressing individuals concerns and due process of the government authorities.

On the broader issues, the pronouncement that the world needs intensive factory farming is debatable. Delivering technology and support to nearly a billion people relying on agriculture in the third world is the focus of the World Bank to ‘feed the world’. The point being there is nothing conclusive about the world needing factory farming.

More over as a way of highlighting the complexities of piggeries, in the UK free range piggeries can be more profitable than their intensive cousins.

Vet, scientist, academic and Animal husbandry expert John Webster’s book ‘Animal Husbandry Regained’, eloquently argues this along with many other salient husbandry and food production views.

It’s only relatively recently that animal freedoms have been increasingly disregarded, like the freedom to exhibit normal behaviors. I purchase (and produce) meat where these and other freedoms are allowed, as does a growing percentage of the population.

To the extent this is a privileged position not affordable to all is also debatable. Like the UK, profitable free range piggeries at scale exist in Australia. “Gooralie” out of Goondiwindi with over 2000 breeders is a case in point. A smaller scale production example is “Box Gum Grazing” near Murringo, employing six people and expanding. Although the proposed piggery complies with animal welfare laws a sustained trend away from intensive practices is evident around the world.

Not withstanding my personal view on intensive shed farming, there are benefits from this proposal, although they come with significant costs and risks. I believe the nature and location of this development application on balance is not in the long-term interests of growing our community. 

As Daryl Kerrigan put it “it’s the serenity”, that we all have a right too.

Michael Baldry, “COLLINGWOOD”