| “A piggery located next to a stream can be responsible for massive nutrient loading.” | |
| Brian Rippy, American Samoa Soil and Water Conservation District |
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The raising of pigs is a culturally significant practice for American Samoans. But as the islands’ human population has grown, so have the number of pigs being raised, and a once-sustainable practice has become a source of pollution and disease as pig waste has ended up in streams and coastal waters.
To help preserve the pig-raising tradition, American Samoa’s coastal resource managers have augmented regulations and implemented educational campaigns with demonstration projects and workshops to help island residents more cost-effectively change their farming practices.
“If people involved didn’t have the money to relocate their piggery away from streams or pay an engineer for designs, all the piggeries would die and pigs would die out of Samoan culture. We didn’t want to see that happen,” says Larry Hirata, a horticulturist with the American Samoa Community College’s Community and Natural Resources Division.
Hirata adds, “While the regulations were the stick, the demonstration projects have been the carrot, and farmers are showing up and seeing the benefits of these operations.”
Part of the Feast
A large percentage of families in American Samoa raise pigs for, among other things, use during family and village celebrations where pigs are roasted and served as the central part of the feast.
“At cultural ceremonies, funerals, weddings, births—the pig plays an important part in the occasion,” explains Brian Rippy, a civil engineer for the American Samoa Soil and Water Conservation District.
Many pigs are raised in a family’s backyard. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, most pig farms on the islands are small-scale operations raising fewer than 20 pigs.
An island-wide piggery inventory conducted in 2006 by the American Samoa Environmental Protection Agency found that there were over 1,000 piggeries in the territory.
Pollution and Disease
The pigs are commonly raised in makeshift open-sided buildings with concrete slab or packed-earth floors. Twice a day, farmers may clean their piggery by flushing the floor with pressurized water, which then runs into a cesspool or directly into streams or wetlands.
“What brought this issue to the fore,” says Hirata, “was that from 2000 to 2007 there were six or seven deaths attributed to leptospirosis,” a bacterial disease usually caused by exposure to water contaminated with the waste of infected animals.
“A piggery located next to a stream can be responsible for massive nutrient loading,” says Rippy. “An adult pig produces three times as much waste as a person. When you consider that the islands’ population is 65,000 people and we have upwards of 10,000 pigs—that’s a massive amount of waste going into our streams, groundwater, and into the reefs.”
Reducing Risk
The territorial legislature directed the American Samoa Environmental Protection Agency to improve the environmental and health conditions of the islands’ piggeries by conducting regular stream water monitoring, inspecting facilities, enforcing environmental and public health regulations, and providing public education and outreach.
To meet the environmental compliance measures, farmers may have to redesign pig-holding buildings, move piggeries 50 feet away from streams, and incorporate pig-waste composting measures.
In 2007, the American Samoa Soil and Water Conservation District received an Administration for Native Americans grant to create examples of inexpensive piggery designs and composting systems, and provide free blueprints to farmers who may be struggling to meet the regulatory requirements.
The American Samoa Coral Reef Advisory Group and American Samoa Environmental Protection Agency helped provide funding for a demonstration project. Rippy was hired to design the regulation-compliant piggeries.
Looking for Examples
“What we needed to look at were designs that were locally sustainable,” Rippy says.
Cost was a primary concern because everything that comes to the islands has the added expense of having to be shipped.
“We looked at piggery operations in the states” he says, “but they tended to be multi-million dollar facilities, and they didn’t provide any feasible options for us here.”
A piggery in Hawaii that was no longer operational had used a dry litter technique and composting, and provided the best example of a system that might work in American Samoa.
Demonstrating Options
The partners ultimately approved three options for local farmers—a portable pigpen, a dry litter system, and two wash-down systems for farmers who can renovate their existing piggeries. In all these systems, the pig manure is composted using a readily available source of carbon, such as wood chips from road maintenance crews.
“These three piggery options eliminate the problem of waste polluting groundwater and streams, and there is no odor if it is properly managed,” Rippy says.
Demonstration piggeries opened in May to allow farmers to view the design options, and workshops for farmers are being held by conservation district staff members. Hirata notes that the designs “can be used for small-scale farmers with one to three pigs all the way up to someone with a commercial operation.”
All the systems have the added value of providing farmers with composted pig manure that can be used as fertilizer.
“All fertilizer on the island is imported, and the cost keeps going up,” Rippy says. “Now we’re aiding the agriculture sector on the islands as well.”
At least 30 farmers have already begun building piggeries using project blueprints, and 11 farmers have qualified for funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Inquiries about the program have been received from many other islands, where piggeries are also a problem, Hirata says.
“Basically, not only do the designs promote good environmental habits and deal with the health aspect of it, but they also teach good animal husbandry,” he says. “This is taking a holistic approach, which is something that has been lost here through the ages.”
To view the piggery designs, go to www.asepa.gov. For more information on American Samoa’s piggery program, contact Larry Hirata at (684) 699-1575, or lhirata@rocketmail.com, or Brian Rippy at (684) 633-2304, ext. 239, or brianrippy@gmail.com.
