ST. ALBERT - A family hog farmer in one of Eastern Ontario’s most hog-oriented municipalities is getting fed up with being painted with the same brush as so-called factory farms now in operation or being planned by Quebec-based interests.

While he hasn’t been ostracized by his community, Raymond Lavergne, who raises both hogs and laying hens in Nation Township outside St. Albert, said there’s definitely now a stigma attached to what was once an honourable branch of the agricultural industry.

"It’s not so much in St. Albert where everybody knows me," Lavergne said during a recent interview at the operation launched by his father Claude more than 30 years ago. "But when I’m out in different places and people find out I’m in hogs, they seem to look at me differently."

With complaints against hog operations intensifying in Eastern Ontario, Lavergne said he’s worried about where and when it’s all going to end: "It seems they want to eat the meat but they don’t want us to produce it."

In this end of the province, the growing clamour against hogs culminated May 24 in the first-ever conference sponsored by Sarsfield-based Protect Our Rural Communities (PORC) entitled "Pigs, Poop, People and Politics"which drew about 80 rural residents.

Held at Ottawa city hall, participants were urged to be responsible consumers by avoiding products from factory farms. Lavergne said it’s particularly galling to him that PORC founder Marc Lafleur is a fellow farmer (dairy) who he feels should be more sympathetic.

Lavergne contacted The AgriNews after reading the May issue. He was concerned an article describing an interim control bylaw imposed by Nation council to curb hog farm expansion while a counties-wide study is conducted could have left the false impression that his family facility had been acquired by Quebecers.

Nothing could be further from the truth, Lavergne insisted. While he has received contract offers from both major Quebec companies now operating in Eastern Ontario - F. Menard and Cote-Paquette - he has turned them down, preferring to maintain his independence.

However, the disgruntled farmer emphasized he believes the Quebec companies run professional, responsible hog businesses not likely to pollute. He pointed to a Quebec hog farm opened several years ago near St. Isidore which hasn’t caused any problems.

Lavergne’s 800-acre operation is one of two hog producing independents in the municipality, with as many as four farms connected to Quebecers either running or planned... pending lapsing of the control bylaw which, if it chooses to do so, Nation council can extend for another year.

That’s exactly the tactic used by Ottawa council while trying to block a fully legal Quebec hog farm from being established near Sarsfield... the application which spawned PORC.

When the two-term bylaw ran out, the city then took its case to court where it lost; council has now launched an appeal, with beef farming Councillor Dwight Eastman, who opposes continued legal action, predicting another loss and a final bill to taxpayers of about $1 million.

Lavergne complained that he’s been caught in the crossfire caused by Nation’s interim control bylaw which applies to all farming operations above a certain size.

Not only is he prevented from expanding the hog side of his operations where numbers at any one time average 1,000, but he’s also blocked from adding new layers to the 30,000 he currently keeps.

"I’m ready to expand now. While I’m waiting for the bylaw to run out, quota on hens is going up. It’s now about $145 per bird. So, I’ll probably have to pay more when I’m able to go ahead."

Lavergne’s hope is that the Nutrient Management Act, when fully implemented with all of its regulations, will remove obstacles for producers, satisfy dissatisfied consumers... and perhaps even restore respectability to hog farming.