Interesting article on pig flu

[Guest guest]

*http://www.thebigmoney.com/articles/judgments/2009/05/06/dont-blame-pigs*

*Don't Blame the Pigs*

No one knows whether industrial farming started swine flu.

*By Dan Mitchell*

*Posted Wednesday, May 6, 2009 - 1:18am*

 

-

 

*The pork business is in deep muck these days as it fights the

**fallacy*<http://www.cattlenetwork.com/Content.asp?ContentID=310079>

* that its meat **might contain swine

flu*<http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/628615>

*. But the industry is also facing a second allegation that has spread as

far as the virus: that the new strain started on a factory hog farm in

Mexico half-owned by **Smithfield

Foods*<http://www.thebigmoney.com/search/quotemedia/sfd>

* (SFD), the world's biggest pork producer.*

 

*Bloggers and opinion journalists around the globe are advancing this idea

as if it were true or, at least, likely. But nobody knows where the strain

came from. Smithfield's farm in Mexico might be the point of origin. Yet

it's also possible it all began in Asia, in southern Mexico, in the United

States, or just about anywhere else. The media claims are based on mere

speculation—and an understandable disgust at corporate pig sties.*

 

*Consider the facts. In February and March, **a bunch of people got

sick*<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/02/AR20090502\

02306.html>

* in the town of La Gloria, Mexico. La Gloria is where a child was found to

be among the first victims of the H1N1 virus—a novel mix of pig, bird, and

human influenzas. And the town is near the site of a large hog operation run

by Granjas Carroll, an operation that is half-owned by Smithfield. Nobody

knows what sickened the other people in the area.*

*[image: Quantcast]*

 

*The cluster of reported illnesses near a large, concentrated animal feedlot

operation, or CAFO, invites investigation. It suggests the site could be the

point of origin of the strain, said Tara Smith, an assistant professor of

epidemiology at the University of Iowa. But that doesn't mean it's certain.

" It's possible, but right now we don't have the evidence for that, " she

said. " People are assuming too much. " *

 

*The assumptions started just as the outbreak surfaced to the wider public

early last week. A couple of food-activist bloggers picked up on **a

post*<http://biosurveillance.typepad.com/biosurveillance/2009/04/swine-flu-in-me\

xico-timeline-of-events.html>

* at the Biosurveillance blog. The post, by James Wilson, chief scientist of

**Veratect* <http://veratect.com/>*, which tracks disease outbreaks, cited

local media reports of increased illness in Veracruz. That's the state where

La Gloria and the Granjas Caroll site are located. *

 

*In February and March, about 60 percent of the local population reported

that they were ill with flulike symptoms. Nobody knows whether this was

swine flu. Residents told local papers they thought the hog farm was to

blame. And people in La Gloria also named the site. According to Wilson, a

" municipal health official " told local media he believed the disease might

have come from " a type of fly that reproduces in pig waste, " as the

scientist put it. *

 

*But Wilson offered this caveat: " And to be crystal clear, the way we used

this information was to simply flag an event as worthy of closer scrutiny

and higher awareness, as there was absolutely no proof of true involvement

of this company in the outbreak—a proper epidemiological investigation is

required to prove such links. " (Emphasis mine.)*

 

*Yet the bloggers ran amok with the material. Paula Hay of the Peak Oil

Entrepreneur blog **came to this definitive

conclusion*<http://peakoilentrepreneur.com/swine-flu-smithfield-foods>

*: " So now it looks like Big Ag is not only responsible for poisoning people

directly with contaminated foods, but also for unleashing a deadly

pandemic. " And Tom Philpott of the popular environmental news site Grist

picked up on Hay's post and **wrote his

own*<http://www.grist.org/article/2009-04-25-swine-flu-smithfield/>

*, bearing the headline: " Swine-flu outbreak linked to Smithfield factory

farms. " That link was supplied by Philpott himself and consisted of nothing

but speculation. He also complained that " the possible link to Smithfield

has not been reported in the US press. " *

 

*There was nothing to report. I talked to several epidemiologists. They all

said such a link would be impossible to identify without a complete

investigation, which could take weeks. Two of them cited as sources in

various excoriations of Smithfield said, on condition of anonymity, that

their statements were mischaracterized to fit the authors' arguments.*

 

*Sometime in the following few days, the headline on Philpott's post was

changed, without explanation, to " Swine Flu Epidemic could be linked to

Smithfield factory farms. " (Emphasis mine.) And he has **continued to write

posts* <http://www.grist.org/tags/swine+flu/>* based on his claim that

Smithfield is to blame. To be fair, Grist has also

**published*<http://www.grist.org/article/2009-04-30-swine-flu-cafo-feedback/>

* several posts

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

* Philpott's and accusing him of " jumping to conclusions. " *

 

*Other blogs and media outlets picked up the story. " Swine Flu May Come From

Corporate Pig Poop " was the headline on a Washington Independent **blog post

*<http://washingtonindependent.com/40739/swine-flu-may-come-from-corporate-pork-\

poop>

*. Democracy Now!—a program that runs on some nonprofit radio stations—aired

a **context-free interview*<http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/29/the_nafta_flu>

* with **Robert Wallace* <http://farmingpathogens.wordpress.com/>*, a

University of Minnesota geography professor who blames the outbreak on

industrial agriculture and globalization. He calls the outbreak the " NAFTA

flu. " *

 

*Word spread to Europe. The Times of London posted the most definitive

headline yet: " **Mexico outbreak traced to 'manure lagoons' at pig

farm*<http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article6182789.ece>

*. " But the article offered no evidence that the outbreak had been " traced "

anywhere. It simply noted there had been an outbreak of illness in La Gloria

in recent months. Mike Davis of the Guardian opened his column by **

declaring*<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/27/swine-flu-mexico-\

health>

* the virus was " probably conceived in the faecal mire of an industrial

pigsty. " He offered zero evidence for this statement but went on to describe

how the virus is spread once it's unleashed.*

 

*To be sure, there is **plenty of

reason*<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/our-hunger-for-cheap-meat_b_19\

4165.html>

* for investigators to probe whether hog farms in the area around La Gloria

are the point of origin. **Scientists have warned for a

while*<http://www.cdc.gov/cafos/>

* that the huge amounts of waste created by lightly regulated livestock

operations could spawn an epidemic. *

 

*But that doesn't mean it happened here. The pork sector, including

Smithfield, may be hard to defend, thanks to its long-standing practice of *

*fouling the

environment*<http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/12840743/porks_dirty_sec\

ret_the_nations_top_hog_producer_is_also_one_of_americas_worst_polluters>

*, among other atrocities. But that doesn't make it automatically guilty for

the start of swine flu. *

 

*Epidemiologist Smith is an expert in the causes of chronic communicable

diseases. She said it's not even known whether the reported illnesses in La

Gloria were influenza—or any disease at all. They could just as easily have

been caused by the vile gases spewed from CAFOs. Or something else entirely.

" It wouldn't even necessarily have to be something infectious, " she said. *

 

*For its part, Smithfield refuses to talk to me. But CEO C. Larry Pope went

on the attack late last week, as the price for hogs tumbled by 12 percent

and Smithfield stocks dropped by a similar amount. (Before recovering

as flufear subsided. Wholesale pork prices, though, are still way

down.) Last

Thursday, Pope penned a " * *letter to

employees*<http://sev.prnewswire.com/health-care-hospitals/20090430/NY0829030042\

009-1.html>

* " actually meant for public consumption, complaining about the

" unrestrained Internet media. " And he appeared on CNBC to **shoot down

speculation* <http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1110312385 & play=1>*. He

noted that no pig had been found to be infected with H1N1. (Since then, pigs

in Canada were discovered to be sick, but even there, it doesn't mean a CAFO

was responsible.) *

 

*Pope said that Smithfield's tests of hogs and workers at its Veracruz site

have turned up no infections. Further results " should be available in a few

days. " And health officials from Mexico and the United States " have also

inspected our farms in Veracruz and found no evidence of H1N1 flu at all. "

The company continues to note that it regularly immunizes its pigs against

flu. But that means little since H1N1 is a new strain. And the industry's

insistence that it is scientifically " impossible " for a human to catch the

flu from a pig is just plain wrong, scientists say.*

 

*For that matter, so is the industry's insistence on its innocence. CAFOs

are horrible places—so horrible they should be the first suspects in such an

outbreak. Regulation and inspection are far too light. But blaming them

before the facts are in is reckless.*

 

- *Dan Mitchell* <thefoodeconomy* has written for The New York

Times, Chicago Tribune, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and Wired. *

 

*Photo of pig by Digital vision/Getty Images.*