Swine Flu

[Guest guest]

Avaaz.org - The World in Action

Alice Jay - Avaaz.org

nikkigreen

Wednesday, May 06, 2009 12:04 AM

The truth about swine flu

 

 

Dear friends,

 

Evidence is emerging that traces swine flu to giant factory pig farms

that are dirty, dangerous, and inhumane. Sign the petition to the World Health

Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization to investigate and

regulate these threats to our health.

 

No-one yet knows whether swine flu will become a global pandemic, but it is

becoming clear where it came from - most likely a giant pig factory farm run by

an American multinational corporation in Veracruz, Mexico.(1)

 

These factory farms are disgusting and dangerous, and they're rapidly

multiplying. Thousands of pigs are brutally crammed into dirty warehouses and

sprayed with a cocktail of drugs -- posing a health risk to more than just our

food -- they and their manure lagoons create the perfect conditions to breed

dangerous new viruses like swine flu. The World Health Organization (WHO) and

the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) must investigate and develop

regulations for these farms to protect global health.

 

Big agrobusiness will try to obstruct and scuttle any attempts at reform, so we

need a massive outcry that health authorities can't ignore. Sign the petition

below for investigation and regulation of factory farms and tell your friends

and family and we will deliver it to the UN agencies. If we reach 200,000

signatures we will deliver it to the WHO in Geneva with a herd of cardboard

pigs. For every 1000 petition signatures we will add a pig to the herd:

 

http://www.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic

 

Last week the flu was all that we talked about -- Mexico has been nearly

paralysed and across the world leaders halted air travel, banned pork imports

and initiated drastic controls to mitigate the spreading virus. As the threat

shows signs of subsiding the question becomes where it came from and how we stop

another outbreak.

 

Smithfield Corporation, the largest pig producer in the world whose farm is

being fingered as the source of the H1N1 outbreak, denies any connection between

their pigs and the flu and big agrobusiness worldwide pays huge sums of money

for research to argue that biosafety is ensured in industrial hog production.

But the WHO has been saying for years that 'a new pandemic is inevitable'(2) and

experts from the European Commission and the FAO have cautioned that the rapid

move from small holdings to industrial pig production is in fact increasing the

risk of development and transmission of disease epidemics. The US Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention warn that scientists still do not know the extent

that infectious compounds produced in factory farms affect human health.(3)

 

Studies abound of the horrific conditions endured by pigs in concentrated

large-scale operations, and the devastating economic impact on small farmer

communities of bloated large-scale operations.(4) Smithfield itself has already

been fined $12.6m and is currently under another federal investigation in the US

for toxic environmental damage from pig excrement lakes.(5)

 

But even with all of this damaging evidence, a combination of increased global

meat consumption and a powerful industry motivated by profit at the cost of

human health, means that instead of being shut down - these sickening factory

farm operations are propagating around the world and we are subsidising them

(6). In the wake of this swine flu threat, let's hold industrial pig producers

to account. Sign the petition for investigation and regulation:

 

http://www.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic

 

If we resolve this global health crisis boldly by reassessing our food

consumption and production, and urgently calling for an inquiry into the impact

of factory farms on human health, we could put in place tough farm practice

rules that will save the global population from future animal borne lethal

pandemics.

 

In hope,

 

Alice, Pascal, Graziela, Paul, Brett, Ben, Ricken, Iain, Paula, Luis, Raj,

Veronique, Milena, Margaret, Taren and the whole Avaaz team

 

(1) Biosurveillance report tracing the disease to the Smithfields farm:

http://biosurveillance.typepad.com/biosurveillance/2009/04/swine-flu-in-mexico-t\

imeline-of-events.html

Reports on the link between the Mexican factory farm and the flu:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/for-la-\

gloria-the-stench-of-blame-is-from-pig-factories-1675809.html

 

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-fg-mexico-flu28-2009apr28,0,1701782.st\

ory

 

http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=can-swine-flu-be-blamed\

-on-industri-09-05-01

 

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227063.800-swine-flu-the-predictable-pan\

demic.html?full=true

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/swine-flu-outbreak----nat_b_191408.htm\

l

 

(2) WHO pandemic information

http://www.euro.who.int/influenza/20080618_19

 

(3) FAO, EC and CDC reports on the risks of industrial farming on public health

FAO and CIWF and http://www.cdc.gov/cafos/about.htm

 

(4) CIWF and PETA video reports of the disgusting conditions for animals in

factory farms and the disease ridden manure swamps:

CIWF and PETA

 

(5) Reports on Smithfield's animal welfare and environmental damage

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/for-la-\

gloria-the-stench-of-blame-is-from-pig-factories-1675809.html

 

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/press/releases/new-report-highlights-the-troubl\

e-with-smithfield-article03132008

 

http://avaazimages.s3.amazonaws.com/SmithfieldJan08.pdf

 

(6) Reports on UK tax payers subsidising factory farms

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/farming/5225298/Taxpayers-forking-o\

ut-700-million-for-factory-farming-in-England.html

 

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