Swine flu and factory farming 5/3/09

[Guest guest]

I write this alert on a flight to New York, having just left LAX where I was

shocked to see dozens of people walking around in masks, apparently guarding

themselves against swine flu. Approximately 37,000 Americans dies every year

from influenza, but so far in this country only one person, an infant, has been

killed by the current swine flu. We are seeing the power of the media to create

a story and influence public behavior. I wrote, on Wednesday, that the upside of

the flu scare was that it had people talking about the ills of factory farming.

Unfortunately, that talk is minimal in the US media. While all of the major UK

papers have included articles on causal relationship between factory farming and

swine flu, and we similar stories from Canada and South Africa, the US media is

virtually silent on the link. There have been some superb exceptions:

 

Jane Velez Mitchell, always a strong voice for the animals, covered swine flu

this week on her CNN show " Issues. " On Monday, April 27, she interviewed Dr.

Michael Greger, director of public health and animal agriculture for the Humane

Society of the United States.

 

Greger said of factory farms, " When thousands of animals are overcrowded

together in these cramped, football-field-size sheds, nose to nose in their own

waste, they're a breeding ground for disease. Really, the perfect storm

environment for the emergence and spread of these new diseases. "

 

Greger discussed the genesis for the current flu outbreak, and Velez- Mitchell

noted,

 

" It's not just the Humane Society of the United States that is criticizing

factory farms. A two-year study by the prestigious Pew Commission on the impact

of factory farms came out this time last year. It concluded that factory farms

pose unacceptable risks to the environment, animal welfare and public health. It

recommends to phase out the most intensive and inhuman confinement practices:

namely pig gestation crates, veal crates and battery cages. "

 

The interview, well worth watching, can be found on line at

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2009/04/28/jvm.swine.flu.cnn

 

On Wednesday, April 29, Velez-Mitchell interviewed Jane Garrison, one of the

organizers of California's Prop 2. As we saw video of horrendous factory farming

conditions, Garrison told us:

 

" Well, what consumers don't know is that swine flu is a respiratory disease in

pigs. And pig farmers try to keep it hidden that 99.9 percent of pigs raised for

food are crammed by the thousands into sheds with poor ventilation, where each

individual animal is kept in a crate that is so small, they can barely stand up,

turn around, lie down and extend their limbs.... And what they don't realize is

that living in those stressful conditions breaks down their immune system and

makes them more susceptible for disease. Jane, it would be like if you had to

live your entire life in the seat of a crowded airplane, unable to get up,

unable to stretch your legs. If one person on that plane got a cold, the next

thing you know, the entire plane would be sick. These factory farms are breeding

ground for disease, and they must be stopped. "

 

Velez-Mitchell ended her interview with Dr Greger with the words, " I don't want

the exclusive on this. I hope that other medias watching this picks up on this

story. Because this is the underlying story that nobody seems to talk about. "

 

Please make sure the producers know how much we appreciate her attention to the

underlying animal cruelty story that other networks are ignoring. The show takes

comments at:

http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.html?106

 

Leslie Hatfield published a strong piece on the Huffington Post blog site

discussing the possible connection between Smithfield and swine flu. Check it

out at

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leslie-hatfield/doth-smithfield-protest-t_b_194861\

..html

And please leave a comment!

 

And an upcoming issue of Newsweek, May 18, has an article, by Laurie Garrett,

headed " The Path of a Pandemic. How one virus spread from pigs and birds to

humans around the globe. And why microbes like the H1N1 flu have become a

growing threat. "

 

It is a long and detailed article which ends with:

 

" A wiser set of pig-related actions would turn to the strange ecology we have

created to feed meat to our massive human population. It is a strange world

wherein billions of animals are concentrated into tiny spaces, breeding stock is

flown to production sites all over the world and poorly paid migrant workers are

exposed to infected animals. And it's going to get much worse, as the world's

once poor populations of India and China enter the middle class. Back in 1980

the per capita meat consumption in China was about 44 pounds a year: it now tops

110 pounds. In 1983 the world consumed 152 million tons of meat a year. By 1997

consumption was up to 233 million tons. And the United Nations Food and

Agriculture Organization estimates that by 2020 world consumption could top 386

million tons of pork, chicken, beef and farmed fish.

 

" This is the ecology that, in the cases of pigs and chickens, is breeding

influenza. It is an ecology that promotes viral evolution. And if we don't do

something about it, this ecology will one day spawn a severe pandemic that will

dwarf that of 1918. "

 

The article presents an excellent opportunity for letters to the editor on the

dangers and the cruelty of factory farming.

 

Newsweek takes letters at letters

 

I noted that newspapers outside of the US are doing a much better job of

covering the connection between swine flu and factory farming. The conservative

and prestigious The Times, from London, included an editorial, by Ben Macintyre,

on April 30, headed " And after much effort, Man created swine flu;

If you abuse nature by mass-producing meat in appalling conditions, you pay the

price by incubating diseases. "

 

You'll find it online at

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/ben_macintyre/article6194381\

..ece

OR

http://tinyurl.com/cv2v5m and can respond with a letter to the editor at

letters

 

The piece in the renowned but more liberal " The Guardian, " from April 30, is by

David Cronin and headed, " The true cost of eating meat. " You'll find it on line

at

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2009/apr/30/swine-flu-meat

The Guardian takes letters at letters

 

That's the kind of coverage we wish we were seeing in the New York Times and

Washington Post!

 

As every local paper currently has news about the flu outbreak, this is the

perfect time for us to be sending letters to our local papers (for some of us

that is the New York Times and Washington Post) making the connection that the

US media seems loathe to make. We can discuss health and ethical concerns

regarding factory farming, and the myriad of dangers posed by the meat laden

American diet. Some of the smaller papers publish close to a hundred percent of

letters they receive so why not write? If you have any trouble finding the

correct email address for a letter to your editor, I am happy to help.

 

You'll find information you can include in your letters on the HSUS website's

informative question and answer with Dr Michael Greger at

 

http://www.hsus.org/farm/news/ournews/qa_on_swine_flu_050209.html .

 

Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a

letter to the editor. Remember that shorter letters are more likely to be

published.

 

Yours and the animals',

Karen Dawn