PIG farmer Colin Pace didn’t mix words when talking about a Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal ruling against him.
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“We’re screwed … It’s wrong. They’ve really destroyed us and we face the real possibility of losing the farm now,” he said.
Mr Pace and and partner Marion McDonnell run about 200 pigs on their 28 hectare property Piggyback Free Range Pork at Baddaginnie.
They were sent to VCAT after Benalla Rural City Council refused to approve an intensive animal husbandry permit.
Intensive animal husbandry is defined as a farm operation where the primary food source is brought in from outside the holding area, as opposed to grazing on the land. Grazing or foraging is defined as extensive animal husbandry.
Mr Pace said Benalla council initially told them their operation was extensive not intensive. He was now considering legal action against the council.
The right to farm case is among several across the state where farming operators have been issued with what many see as harsh and unrealistic conditions on their permits to farm.
Greta Valley Free Range Pork operators Kim and Brian Smith said they had operated for five years without issues but last week had 59 conditions to meet before getting a permit to operate from Wangaratta Council.
Pork Australia chief executive Andrew Spencer said the current planning process was hurting small-scale producers.
“For one reason or another, they seem reluctant to use the industry guidelines which have been developed over many years and are a fantastic guide for councils to help them in the assessment process,” he said.
"In some cases they don't even listen to advice from expert government departments and regulators, it is extremely frustrating.
“Councils tend to take extremely conservative views and put overly restrictive conditions on piggeries and give much more credence to the objectors then to the science and the evidence and it is costing our producers a hell of a lot of money and it ends up in the appeals court.
“As an industry we need a lot more certainty in this area."
Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance president Tammi Jonas said clarification of intensive farming laws was vital.
“In Colin and Marion's case, they couldn't meet the buffer zone requirements designed to protect people from the negative impact on local amenity of confining thousands of animals in sheds, which I imagine very few farms under 100 acres would be able to meet, and nor should they be required to,” Ms Jonas said.
“People's livelihoods are at stake, and some have already lost them or sought refuge in shires where they can get back to doing what they love – farming.”
Victorian Farmers Federation president David Jochinke said it was important for the guidelines to be clear around what the definition of intensive farming is.
"People should be able to apply for the right permits to be able to do what they do and councils have the right mechanisms to actually help agriculture, not to prevent it," he said.