Grist guest column

[Guest guest]

DON'T JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS ON SWINE FLU AND PORK PRODUCTION

 

Grist, Merritt Clifton, April 29, 2009

<http://www.grist.org/article/2009-04-29-swine-flu-pork-farm-reax/>http://www.gr\

ist.org/article/2009-04-29-swine-flu-pork-farm-reax/

 

 

Thirty years ago this month I knelt

beside the Yamaska River in southern Quebec with

a test kit, downstream from several of the

then-largest factory-type pig farms in North

America, but upstream from the water intakes for

the cities of Farnham and St. Hyacinthe, and

found that the Yamaka literally contained more

extraneous chemicals from pig excrement than H2O.

The predictable happened as the weather

warmed. By midsummer thousands of people were

ill. My exposés helped to bring the construction

of new water filtration and treatment plants--but

did not slow the growth of factory farming.

Three out of every five Quebec farmers sold out

to the mega-conglomerates or were forced out of

business during the next 10 years.

Twenty-three years ago this month I was the

first volunteer firefighter to arrive at burning

factory farrowing barn. Ten minutes ahead of the

trucks with the equipment, I found no way to

free any sows and piglets before all roasted

alive in their steel farrowing crates, squealing

in terror and agony.

As a lifelong second-generation

vegetarian, and longtime vegan, I would like

nothing more, for both humane and environmental

reasons, than to see an end to factory farming.

Yet in exposing and attacking the many

and often grotesquely obvious excesses of factory

farms, I believe it is essential at all times to

be fair, be accurate, and not amplify

allegations which may be unsubstantiated--not

least because amplifying an unfounded or

premature allegation tends to erode the crediblty

of the critic.

As of the moment, about two weeks into

formal medical forensic investigation, no one

knows just what the source of the mutant H1N1

virus first discovered in the Vera Cruz region of

Mexico might have been.

Much attention has been given to the case

of five-year-old Edgar Hernandez, of the La

Gloria hamlet in Perote, near the Granjas

Carroll factory pig farm. Hernandez--who

survived--is the earliest victim of the mutant

H1N1 virus from whom a sample was preserved. La

Gloria residents blamed Granjas Carroll for an

outbreak of illness in February and March 2009.

Officially attributed to biting flies, the

illness produced flu-like symptoms.

Granjas Carroll is half-owned by Smithfield,

the world's largest factory pig producer,

involved in pollution incidents at multiple sites

on several continents. As the mutant H1N1 virus

is a variant of an illness that is generically if

somewhat inaccurately termed " swine flu, " one

might be tempted to presume that this disease,

often lethal in Mexico, has incubated and

emerged as result of the intensely unnatural

manner in which Smithfield raises pigs for

slaughter.

Prudence dictates waiting for substantial

medical evidence. Though the Hernandez sample is

the oldest that exists, flu-like illnesses had

already been reported throughout the region for

weeks. Granjas Carroll, however, reported no

unusual disease outbreaks among either pigs or

staff. Biting insects associated with pig waste

may have infected La Gloria residents with

something, but many insect-borne illnesses

produce flu-like symptoms, including the

malarial and ricketsial disease families, which

are of protozoan and bacterial rather than viral

origin, and are known to occur in the vicinity.

There are reports that at least one

migrant worker returned to La Gloria with a

flu-like illlness contracted in the U.S., and

spread it, before Hernandez fell ill. The

nature of influenza is that a new strain may be

quite widely distributed before it turns deadly.

Often the deadly turn comes in a place where

environmental conditions, weather, or a

population already weakened by some other disease

produce unique susceptibility. La Gloria may be

such a place, and the presence of the pig farm

may be a factor.

Yet even this would be far from indicting

the pig farm for the disease itself, which may

have emerged thousands of miles away, and might

as easily have arrived with the migrant worker as

it appears to have spread outward from Mexico,

once people started looking for it.

By then the mutant H1N1 virus might

already have been distributed worldwide. But

only in the right--or wrong--conditions would it

behave differently enough from any other flu to

be identified.

Perhaps the migrant worker, or some other

person who was the actual Vector One, contracted

the disease while working at a U.S. factory farm.

Or perhaps Vector One wrapped sandwiches at a

fast food restaurant, and picked up the various

reassorted " swine flu " strains that comprise this

new variant of H1N1 from co-workers who had other

versions of common flus.

Until the medical evidence is in, we just

don't know. And focusing prematurely on the

presumed factory farm connection could prove a

dangerous distraction from identifying and

responding to the actual source of a potential

pandemic.

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

[ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent

newspaper providing original investigative

coverage of animal protection worldwide, founded

in 1992. Our readership of 30,000-plus includes

the decision-makers at more than 10,000 animal

protection organizations. We have no alignment

or affiliation with any other entity. $24/year;

for free sample, send address.]

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

[ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent

newspaper providing original investigative

coverage of animal protection worldwide, founded

in 1992. Our readership of 30,000-plus includes

the decision-makers at more than 10,000 animal

protection organizations. We have no alignment

or affiliation with any other entity. $24/year;

for free sample, send address.]