Ukraine: Environmentalists want to shut pig farms
The largest producer of pork in the Ukraine, APK-Invest, is currently in the midst of a major scandal.
Several human rights organisations have required the authorities to limit the activity of pig farms in the Donetsk region.
The Green movement has been protesting for weeks now against the activities of APK-Invest pig farms. Participants of this initiative said that the company is polluting the environment.
In response, the management of the company reported that all pig farms of APK-Invest are complying with all legal requirements, while regional sanitary and epidemiological stations regularly examine the composition of air in the enterprise. However, the representatives of Green movement disagree.
“The waste products are transported to the fields as fertiliser. To defend themselves the heads of the company say that they turn these waste into a safe material. According to scientists at least three years is needed for the process. At the pig farms it has only been a year since the process has started. However, people close to the fields are already being affected by the odours. There are already a huge number of flies in the fields and all this waste is flowing to the rivers and streams,” said the chairman of the Donetsk Regional Ecological Association Green Movement of Donbass Vladimir Berezin.
Environmentalists say that they are currently struggling to initiate a referendum regarding the issue – as to whether the APK-Invest farms should be allowed to operate.
The company also plans to increase the number of pigs in the Donetsk region to 600 thousand heads by 2015. According to Mr. Berezin the animals’ waste in this case would amount to 12,000 tonnes per day.
