Feedlot Alley is a nickname given to a 500 km² area northwest of

Lethbridge Lethbridge ( ) is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada. With a population of 101,482 in its 2019 Alberta municipal censuses, 2019 municipal census, Lethbridge became the fourth Alberta city to surpass 100,000 people. The nearby Canadian ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

known for its

intensive In grammar, an intensive word form is one which denotes stronger, more forceful, or more concentrated action relative to the root on which the intensive is built. Intensives are usually lexical formations, but there may be a regular process for for ...

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals ...

operations. The area is home to over 2,300,000

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...

and 180,000 hogs. Lethbridge County reported 543,566 cattle and calves and 73,161 pigs on census day 2016. Feedlot Alley, located in south central Alberta, is also known for producing 60% of all Canadian beef.

Criticism

In 1998,

Chinook Health Chinook Health is part of Alberta Health Services, the governing body for healthcare regulation in the Canadian province of Alberta. Chinook Health administers public health services in southwestern Alberta, Canada; the region it covers is bordered ...

, the health authority that oversees the region that includes Feedlot Alley, reported one of the highest rates of gastrointestinal illnesses in the province, with rates 1.5 times the provincial average. Intensive livestock operations such as those in this area pose a potential threat to the

water supply Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavors or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes. Public water supply systems are crucial to properly functioning societies. Thes ...

because of runoff. While most waste from the operations is used to fertilise crops in the area, smaller farms cannot absorb all nutrients from the manure risking excess waste being washed into the water supply.

References

Creating Energy or Frustration: The Use of Consensus Building By Governments to Attack Sustainability Issues
Tammy Praskach. 2000. Accessed 7 November 2006.

Stephen Laurent. 1 December 2002. Accessed 7 November 2006. {{refend Lethbridge County