Government support of ILOs

The Precautionary Principle

“Activities which are likely to pose a significant risk to nature shall be preceded by an exhaustive examination; their proponents shall demonstrate that expected benefits outweigh potential damage to nature, and where potential adverse effects are not fully understood, the activities should not proceed.” — Article 11b, United Nations World Charter of Nature, 1982.

Canada is a signatory to this document, yet the regulatory regime that pertains to factory farming does not reflect this.

In all provinces except Quebec, the provincial agriculture department has all or nearly all the authority over approvals and regulations concerning factory farms. In most cases, the agriculture department also promotes industrial livestock expansion, and in addition, provincial government finance, subsidize and/or own factory farms. The conflict of interests seems quite remarkable.

Enforcement of regulations suffers from lack of political will and the trend towards self-regulation and self-monitoring by industry. Government budgets are cut and costs are reduced by reducing the budgets and number of personnel assigned to watch over the industry.

Furthermore, what regulations we do have are based on known hazards — but there are always unknowns. Side effects, sometimes called “externalities” are as much a part of the production process as are planned operations. Regulations tend to focus on how industrial livestock operations are SUPPOSED to perform, but there is a lack of comprehensive research or monitoring on ACTUAL performance. There is little capacity to discover the unexpected, cumulative, synergistic effects.

“Right to Farm” legislation

Right to farm legislation has been passed by all across Canada. These Acts take away the right to sue a factory farm as long as it is using “generally accepted agricultural practices”. These laws shield factory farms from liability and in practice, are giant loopholes that allow factory farms to avoid regulation. Family farmers are often the neighbours whose rights to a clean and healthy environment are trampled on by nearby factory farm’s “right to farm”.