Swine Flu and Factory Farming

outlawing pork because of disease

Why outlaw pork (I'm not sure how you'd do this anyway!) when the real culprit is factory farms. Worldwide, including the U.S., factory farms are not held accountable for treating their waste. Cities are required in the U.S. to treat human waste. Hogs, beef cattle, chickens produce more waste than the same number of humans, so why are these factory, industrial farms requried to build treatment plants.

The trailer for "Fresh" the movie features a hog operator in Missouri who killed his herd after a serious staph infection and is now raising free-range pigs using no antibiotics, or hormones. Here's the link: http://cleanse-for-better-health.com/blog/factory-farm-staph-infection/

He reports his factory-farmed hogs were continually ill, and he medicated continually. Now he does none of that; his pigs free-range and are never sick. That means they have no pathogens to spread to other hogs or to humans. They're not part of the "incubator," of possibly flu strains.

Janice Collett of NV @ Aug 23, 2009 16:11:29 PM

Ban Pork?

My comment keeps getting removed from this post. Why not outlaw the pork industry? Pigs are required for the life cycle for the current Swine Flu and for the number one cause of epilepsy in Mexico. Cystercercosis is the leading cause of epilepsy in Mexico and is a parasitic infection of the brain. Some die from its complications, and it requires pigs as a part of its lifestyle. The current Swine flu outbreak as well, requires pigs in its life cycle, which if it doesn't cause thousands of death, will have done untold damage to the Mexican economy. My question then is: isn't the pork industry a public health threat, there are plenty of other meat options such as beef, lamb, etc. Now why are the moderators removing this comment when others are calling for the outright removal of the entire "meat" industry?

Jon of IA @ May 01, 2009 01:07:05 AM

March 30th case of Swine Flu in California

This is something I found that the media has not mentioned. It appears that there was a case of Novel H1N1 flu (Swine Flu) in California as early as March 30.

Here is the link:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/FJ966955

The patient was 9 and Female in California and the collection date was March 30, 2009. I'm not a health care professional so I am not sure exactly what everything on this report means but the date to me is significant. If you can't see the link go to ncbi.nlm.gov forward slash nuccore forward slash FJ966955.

Can anyone tell us why we didn't hear about this case in the media reports? What does this report mean? Any comments would be helpful.

Anon A Mus of OK @ Apr 29, 2009 18:09:36 PM

swine flu tracking website

I have been checking on this swine flu tracking website http://www.swine-flu-tracker.com/ on and off for the last couple of days now and its kinda scary seeing how it this strain of flu is spreading.

poulin of KS @ Apr 29, 2009 08:35:42 AM

Eat less meat, no meat or meat from sustainable farms

We don't know the answers yet, but we do have enormous amounts of evidence that factory farming is a health threat, an environmental threat and a destroyer of quality of life for humans and animals. All of this risk to our health and the environment for cheap meat... It's wrong. People should should eat less meat, no meat or meat from organic or sustainable farms.

I live in a neighborhood with a factory farm in it outside of Boston, Massachusetts. While smaller compared to the mega-factories, it's enormous by Massachusetts standards and in suburbia! This operation has wreaked havoc in three towns, hundreds of homes, many businesses and even commuters on Interstate 93. The Superintendent of Schools in our neighboring town has even written a letter stating that kids refuse to go out to recess sometimes due to the extreme odors at one school.

This operation has raised cattle and hogs - for human consumption - YARDS from a Superfund site and two other toxic dump sites. What has the USDA or the MDAR done about it? Nothing.

People, please separate farming from industrialized agriculture, or factory farming.

http://TewksburyOdor.org

Dave of MA @ Apr 29, 2009 08:35:17 AM

factory farming is a potential health hazard

I don't know if Smithfield Foods caused this Swine Flu outbreak, but I do know that large Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO), just like Smithfield Foods, are a serious breeding ground for all sorts of bacteria.

Waste management is a huge issue for CAFO's, as well. It is hard for a factory farm to properly manage the waste that is secreted from 1,000 to 10,000 hogs. When a manure pit or a lagoon leaks below the soil surface it can contaminate ground water and infiltrate wells (Volland, Zupanic, and Chappelle 2003; Huffman and Westerman 1995).

Ammonia in feces and urine can also break down into nitrate. 10 mg/l of nitrate in drinking water could cause methemoglobinemia (blue baby syndrome) and death. Nitrate consumption has also been linked to certain cancers.

I, for one, am not willing to chance it. I refuse to gamble my family's lives, health and happiness for cheap food. You can refuse to put up with large factory farms, too. Go to (http://www.friendsoffamilyfarmers.org) to get educated and make a difference in your community.

Danielle of OR @ Apr 28, 2009 20:07:47 PM

to "voice of reason"

Wow. So just because Mexican authorities haven't said this outbreak is connected to any farm, that's the truth? I mean, they couldn't be refraining from saying that for, say, financial reasons, could they? Seeing as how this huge mega-farm is obviously an important player in their regional economy. I know, call me crazy. And just who is paying you to so vehemently defend factory farming in general? Who in their right mind thinks that the unnatural processes of factory farming are BETTER than more traditional farming methods? Obviously, you have a vested interest in attempting to discredit this blog post-I just hope that your rhetoric is as transparent to everyone else as it is to me.

Anna of OH @ Apr 28, 2009 15:41:15 PM

Voioce of Reason

What "Matty" does for a living doesn't change the truth that there is no evidence tieing this outbreak back to any farm.

There is one point in Matthew's second post that begs correction. Mexican health officials are not saying this flu outbreak has a connection to any farm. That allegation has only been made by people living in the area near a large farm. They have no evidence. That is just what they feel. Keep in mind there could be many things that would movtivate such unsubstantiated allegations.

Rather than a large single purpose farm such as that operated by Smithfiled's subsidiary, I think this flu is more likely to have started where pigs, avians and people live in extremely close proximity and don't use biosecuritysanitationhygiene practices.

Large farms limit the number of people in contact with livestock. They keep species separated. And they practice both active and passive biosecurity and follow animal health protocols. While some small farms practice exemplary biosecurity and hygeine, many more do not. Having grown up on a small farm and working with small farmers for several years, I can assure you that is the case.

Maura Judkis and the authors whose links she included in her article show how low American journalism has sunk. In the old days, it was about being the first to get to the bottom of the story. Today, journalis is about being first with the most sensational headline without concern for getting the whole story.

I agree with Matthew of AZ. The editors of US News & World Report should feel ashamed for letting such unsubstantiated text be released on their website. When a reporter writes a story using nothing but information from other biased reporters, you don't call that journalism. You call it gossip.

Former Ag Teacher of MO @ Apr 28, 2009 10:40:13 AM