Hog Watch Manitoba, in several webinars, attacked production agriculture namely hog production. With the chaos from the COVID-19 pandemic continuing, this group held a three-part webinar in April titled the hidden cost of industrial hog production. 
The group targeted antibiotic use in hog production, farm size, corporate farming, how hog production in Manitoba affects climate change, among other production agriculture facets.  
Hog Watch Manitoba calls itself a non-profit organization, a coalition of environmentalists, farmers, friends of animals, social justice advocates, trade unions and scientists.  
“We are promoting a hog industry in Manitoba that is ethically, environmentally and economically sustainable.” 
There are many concerns about threats to the environment, inhumane conditions for the animals and unsustainable economics that helped form HWM and advocate for an alternative model for the hog industry. 
Hog producers on a WhatsApp chat group expressed concern over the tactics this group may employ and has in the past.  
“If you want food prices to escalate, even more, allow this group to influence the government to shut down the pig industry,” said one member. “This group will work hard to defeat the current Brian Pallister PC government to have their way with an NDP government and make changes that could hurt farming and potentially drive-up food prices.”  
The Animal Ag Alliance based in Maryland is an industry-united, non-profit organization that helps bridge the communication gap between farm and fork. 
Vice-president Hannah Thompson-Weeman said Hog Watch Manitoba is new to their group profiles on more than 175 of these different organizations. New ones keep popping up with a regional focus or a specific industry focus.  
“It sounds like a lot of the usual rhetoric targeting animal agriculture, specifically hog production, and focusing on farm size. Now, I think it’s important to understand that a lot of these activist groups will focus on large-scale modern production systems as a stepping stone to their ultimate goal, which is ending animal agriculture.” 

She said much of the wording on their website and efforts are about farm size, but frequently that’s part of what they call the incremental changes to approach. People don’t receive ‘Go vegan, ban hog production,’ nearly as well. Instead, they back up their demands make them sound potentially more reasonable as a way to get their foot in the door. 
Another thing that stood out is their collaboration and connection to the World Animal Protection on this webinar series. WAP is a global activist group that targets animal agriculture, wants to see an end to animals raised for food.  
“That tie into that international organization is concerning.” 
The trends in Canada are the same as in the US. Activist groups see the new Biden administration as more sympathetic to their plight, to their beliefs about animal agriculture, mainly because of the new administration’s focus on climate change.  
“We see an uptick in activism, targeting legislation, legislative efforts from activist groups here in the US over the past few months, which will continue.” 
Hog producers such as the Hutterian Brethren WhatsApp group must face reality and invest in correcting the narrative and get ahead of some of these efforts.  
“If we aren’t providing that united voice and correcting the record, setting it straight, unfortunately, the messages of these types of organizations are going to be all that people like legislators, policymakers, the media, restaurant, and retail brands hear.” 
Together with producers and industry, people communicate positive and correct information about the animal agriculture community and respond to these efforts to target influencers with myths and misinformation.  
“We have to be there, we have to be part of the conversation, or they’re just going to fill in the blanks with a version of animal agriculture that we would disagree with.” •
— By Harry Siemens