|
SWINE FLU COULD BE LINKED TO SMITHFIELD FARMS IN MEXICO
There are allegations that Smithfield Foods, the world's largest pork packer and hog producer, is linked to the swine flu outbreak. (Photo: Lee Sang-hack / AP)
It appears that a giant pork packer and hog producer, Smithfield Foods, may be linked to the Swine Flu outbreak which originated in La Gloria, Perote Municipality, Veracruz State, Mexico ~ that houses a Smithfield subsidiary called Granjas Carroll which raises 950,000 hogs per year in deplorable conditions : Allen L Roland
In what could be just another example of the lax health enforcement regulations of the past Bush administration it appears that a poorly managed and contaminated pig farm in Mexico, a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods, may be at the epicenter of the recent Swine Flu epidemic.
The highly respected Biosurvelliance, Operational topics in biosurveillance, reported on April 24th a timeline of events for the Swine Flu in Mexico ~ which leads back to April 6th where Veratect reported local health officials declared a health alert due to a respiratory disease outbreak in La Gloria, Perote Municipality, Veracruz State, Mexico.
Note that Veratect operates two operations centers based in the United States (one in the Washington, DC area and one in Seattle, WA) that provide animal and human infectious disease event detection and tracking globally.
Swine Flu in Mexico- Timeline of Events
http://biosurveillance.typepad.com/biosurveillance/2009/04/swine-flu-in-mexico-timeline-of-events.html
Excerpt:
April 6
" Veratect reported local health officials declared a health alert due to a respiratory disease outbreak in La Gloria, Perote Municipality, Veracruz State, Mexico. Sources characterized the event as a "strange" outbreak of acute respiratory infection, which led to bronchial pneumonia in some pediatric cases. According to a local resident, symptoms included fever, severe cough, and large amounts of phlegm. Health officials recorded 400 cases that sought medical treatment in the last week in La Gloria, which has a population of 3,000; officials indicated that 60% of the town’s population (approximately 1,800 cases) has been affected. No precise timeframe was provided, but sources reported that a local official had been seeking health assistance for the town since February.
Residents believed the outbreak had been caused by contamination from pig breeding farms located in the area. They believed that the farms, operated by Granjas Carroll, polluted the atmosphere and local water bodies, which in turn led to the disease outbreak. According to residents, the company denied responsibility for the outbreak and attributed the cases to "flu." However, a municipal health official stated that preliminary investigations indicated that the disease vector was a type of fly that reproduces in pig waste and that the outbreak was linked to the pig farms. It was unclear whether health officials had identified a suspected pathogen responsible for this outbreak."
Tom Philpott,Truthout, who also picked up this story reports that " From what I can tell, the possible link to Smithfield has not been reported in the U.S. press. Searches of Google News and the websites of the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal all came up empty. The link is being made in the Mexican media, however. "Granjas Carroll, causa de epidemia en La Gloria," declared a headline in the Vera Cruz-based paper La Marcha.The rough translation of that article reads ~ According to one community resident, the organic and fecal waste produced by Granjas Carrol isn't adequately treated, creating water and air pollution in the region. I witnessed-and smelled the same thing in Hardin County, Iowa, a couple of years ago, another area marked by intensive industrial hog production. The article goes on to say that area residents have long complained of "fetid odors" in the air and water, and swarms of flies hovering around waste lagoons. Like their counterparts who live in CAFO-heavy U.S. areas, they also complain of respiratory ailments. Now, with 30 percent of the area's residents now infected with the virulent flu bug, people are demanding that state and federal authorities inspect hog operations there. So far, reports La Marcha, the response has been: nada." http://www.truthout.org/042809K
Regardless of whether health officials ultimately tie the swine flu epidemic back to Smithfield's hog operations in Mexico, the story has already helped illuminate how factory farms can act as a vector for environmental injustice, imposing unnecessary suffering on nearby communities because of the serious ecological problems associated with industrial livestock operations ~ which can endanger both animals and humans.
A report released last year by the Union of Concerned Scientists documented how misguided policies encouraged the growth of such dangerous industrial operations by shifting billions of dollars in costs to taxpayers and local communities ~ and made the case for instituting new policies that support animal production methods that benefit society rather than harm it. http://www.southernstudies.org/2009/04/swine-flu-story-illuminates-disease-and-injustice-breeding-in-factory-farms-shadows.html
 |
|
Mother pigs are confined to cages so small that they can’t even turn around. |
Almost all of the 100 million pigs killed for food in the United States every year endure horrific conditions in controlled animal feeding operations (CAFOs), the meat industry’s euphemism for factory farms. Smarter than dogs, these social, sensitive animals spend their lives in overcrowded, filthy warehouses, often seeing direct sunlight for the first time as they are crammed onto a truck bound for the slaughterhouse. http://www.goveg.com/factoryFarming_pigs_farms.asp
With sales of $12 billion, Smithfield Foods, SFD, is the leading processor and marketer of fresh pork and packaged meats in the United States, as well as the largest producer of hogs.
Consumers take note ~ we have the purchasing power to institute needed change in these industrial operations by refusing to purchase their products.
Allen L Roland http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2009/04/29.html
| 
