The Quebec government has slightly loosened its rules banning the spreading of all materials containing dead ruminants as fertilizer.
Environment Minister Line Beauchamp announced on Wednesday that the province has amended its farm regulations to take into account the new federal government controls on specified risk materials (or SRMs, the tissues known to harbour the protein that causes mad cow disease or related diseases in infected animals), which took effect in July.
The new provincial regulation still blocks the spreading of composted mammals or poultry, both on crops destined for human consumption and on pastures, as well as the spreading of sewage sludge from municipal treatment systems and from septic tanks.
However, the province noted in a release, the amended regulations do not target the spreading of composts made from either domestic food waste or sewage sludge coming from an abattoir’s treatment system.
