Thread: Swine Flu Origins in US Owned Factory Farm?

ISS - Swine flu linked to Smithfield Foods factory farm?

Swine flu linked to Smithfield Foods factory farm?


Grist Magazine online has a must-read story by North Carolina-based food editor Tom Philpott examining a possible link between the outbreak of swine flu and Smithfield Foods of Virginia, the world's largest pork producer and processor.

Forty cases of the disease have been confirmed so far in the United States, including two cases in Texas, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The outbreak of this particular strain of flu, which is caused by virus found in pigs, originated in the Mexican state of Veracruz, where Smithfield subsidiary Granjas Carroll raises about a million hogs a year, Philpott reports.

He points to a timeline of the outbreak on the blog Biosurveillance that documents a "respiratory disease outbreak" in the small Veracruz town of La Gloria, where about 60% of the population of about 3,000 has been affected by what's been characterized as a "strange" outbreak of acute respiratory infection leading to some cases of bronchial pneumonia. According to Biosurveillance:

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.

Philpott notes that the Mexico City daily La Jornada has reported on the possible connection between the flu outbreak and Smithfield's operations, noting that a Mexican health agency has acknowledged that the original carrier of the disease may have been the flies that breed in the company's hog waste lagoons.

The swine flu outbreak has led to a drop in Smithfield's stock prices, with analysts increasing their loss estimates for that company has well as Arkansas-based Tyson Foods due to consumer concerns about pork.


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Source article

Swine-flu outbreak could be linked to Smithfield factory farms | Grist

The outbreak of a new flu strain—a nasty mash-up of swine, avian, and human viruses—has infected 1,000 people in Mexico and the U.S., killing 68. The World Health Organization warned Saturday that the outbreak could reach global pandemic levels. Is Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork packer and hog producer, linked to the outbreak? Smithfield operates massive hog-raising operations Perote, Mexico, in the state of Vera Cruz, where the outbreak originated. The operations, grouped under a Smithfield subsidiary called Granjas Carroll, raise 950,000 hogs per year, according to the company Web site.
On Friday, the U.S. disease-tracking blog Biosurveillance published a timeline of the outbreak containing this nugget, dated April 6 (major tip of the hat to Paula Hay, who alerted me to the Smithfield link on the Comfood listserv and has written about it on her blog, Peak Oil Entrepreneur):

Residents [of Perote] 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.

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. No need to translate that, except to point out that La Gloria is the village where the outbreak seems to have started. Judging from the article, Mexican authorities treat hog CAFOs with just as much if not more indulgence than their peers north of the border, to the detriment of surrounding communities and the general public health. Get this:

De acuerdo con uno de los habitantes de la comunidad, Eli Ferrer Cortés, los desechos fecales y orgánicos que produce Granjas Carroll no son tratados adecuadamente, lo que genera contaminación del agua y del viento en la region.

My rough translation: 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.
The Mexico City daily La Jornada has also made the link. According to the newspaper, the Mexican health agency IMSS has acknowledged that the orginal carrier for the flu could be the “clouds of flies” that multiply in the Smithfield subsidiary’s manure lagoons.
I’ll be in touch with contacts in Mexico as this story develops —and I’ll be curious to see whether the U.S. media explores the link with Smithfield’s Mexico operation.




Note: In the original version of this post, I had called production at Granjas Carroll “nearly equal to Smithfield’s total U.S. production.” I had been confusing total production at Granjas Carroll—950,000 hogs produced in fiscal 2008—with the number of sows, or breeding pigs, kept by Smithfield in the United States. According to my source—“Concentration of Ag Markets, 2007” (PDF) by Hendrickson and Heffernan—Smithfield keeps 1.2 million sows. Actual hog production is much larger—thus Smithfield’s total U.S. hog production is much larger than Granjas Carroll’s. I regret the error.

Grist magazine? Is that like Mad Magazine??

Might be as the have or 6000 articles on global warming.

Search | Grist

We'll see on the origins, but how could American piggies end up infecting people who would then infect people in Mexico?

Ahh....illegals.

Anway:

U.S. officials want 'swine' out of flu name
28 Apr 2009 2142 GMT
Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON, April 28 (Reuters) - What's in a name? U.S. pork producers are finding that the name of the virus spreading from Mexico is affecting their business, prompting U.S. officials to argue for changing the name from swine flu. At a news briefing, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack took pains to repeatedly refer to the flu as the "H1N1 virus." "This is not a food-borne illness, virus. It is not correct to refer to it as swine flu because really that's not what this is about," Vilsack said. Israel has already rejected the name swine flu, and opted to call it "Mexico flu." Jewish dietary laws forbid eating pork.

Link & Entire: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N28343516.htm

Originally Posted by Milkman

We'll see on the origins, but how could American piggies end up infecting people who would then infect people in Mexico?

Ahh....illegals.

Anway:

The farms are US us owned subsidiaries, but are in Mexico, where labor is cheaper and health/animal welfare measures not so stringent.

Greed trumps social responsibility

^ Indeed, greed trumps....everything, unfortunately.

Thanks for the info.

It will be interesting to see if this proves to be the case. If so, expect the price of pork to go up substantially. Traditional battery farming techniques will have to be altered significantly.

Originally Posted by sabang

It will be interesting to see if this proves to be the case. If so, expect the price of pork to go up substantially. Traditional battery farming techniques will have to be altered significantly.

As resources deplete, eating of animals will become ( or is already ) unsustainable, perhaps this outbreak is one of the first signs that changing such luxury habits is inevitable.
Plus it's a cruel way to treat animals ...And I can't help but feel eating animals that suffer miserably ( not to mention the hormones and antibiotics) is inherently ..unhealthy.

We really do not need to eat pork anyway. I know you do not catch SF from eating pork but if we did not eat pork then we would not be catching it from live pigs. Stop eatting the crap.

Hmm, bacon, sausage, BBQ short ribs, ham steaks, pickled pigs feet, smoked hams, etc... Nope, not giving up pork...

Originally Posted by Muadib

Hmm, bacon, sausage, BBQ short ribs, ham steaks, pickled pigs feet, smoked hams, etc... Nope, not giving up pork...

I talk a lot about corporate greed, I often forget how it is really individuals that enable corporations to systematically exploit our shared resources.

Originally Posted by MustavaMond

I talk a lot about corporate greed, I often forget how it is really individuals that enable corporations to systematically exploit our shared resources.

you're an idiot..... it's as much about feeding the world as it is about making money while doing so..

Originally Posted by DrivingForce

Originally Posted by MustavaMond

I talk a lot about corporate greed, I often forget how it is really individuals that enable corporations to systematically exploit our shared resources.

you're an idiot..... it's as much about feeding the world as it is about making money while doing so..

Oh yeah, that's why the whole world is fed and no one is starving . What BS

it's about only feeding the rich who can afford meat. If not for their selfish attitudes, so many would not be starving.

How about we eat the Rich .

Originally Posted by MustavaMond

Grist Magazine online has a must-read story by North Carolina-based food editor Tom Philpott examining a possible link between the outbreak of swine flu and Smithfield Foods of Virginia, the world's largest pork producer and processor.

So, Does Possible, mean you are again posting bullshit?

Originally Posted by sabang

It will be interesting to see if this proves to be the case. If so, expect the price of pork to go up substantially.

Already heard last week it was heading to 150 baht a kilo, I paid 125 for 30 kg of pork to make smoked hams.

Originally Posted by MustavaMond

As resources deplete, eating of animals will become ( or is already ) unsustainable, perhaps this outbreak is one of the first signs that changing such luxury habits is inevitable. Plus it's a cruel way to treat animals

You got that right, but you are nuts or very poor in history or pobly both as this sure the fuck ain't the first time this has happened, I had swine flu before, sick as hell I was.
You are a sorry shit stirring person.

Plus the fact that it has to be a mexican corp, can not be owned by a US company.

A foreign corporation in Mexico requires two or more individual investors, none of whom must be Mexican, who control 100% of the corporation. There are, however, exceptions to this rule with regard to certain specific industries, such as the oil industry, radio and television and fisheries, where foreign participation is restricted. Through a corporation, foreign owners acquire the right of domain, in addition to possession and benefit. In other words, the foreign corporation owns the property with same rights as if it were a Mexican entity

Originally Posted by MustavaMond

it's about only feeding the rich who can afford meat. If not for their selfish attitudes, so many would not be starving. How about we eat the Rich .

So now it finally comes clear, Poor ol Musty is a dismal failure at anything she tried to do in life and now she is a pinch faced old hag spinster who hates everyone and everything and has a hardon like a donut for the USA and anyone that has been a success in life.

Originally Posted by robuzo

as discussed in a recent NYT article about a pig farming town in Indiana where such infections are occurring in epidemic proportions. Pigs could be raised in better conditions, a la Niemen Ranch, for not too much more money

Granted, it is not the hog we used to butcher in October on the ranch, but it is being raised and a 30% profit margin has been figured into the asking price per pound and that is a cheap as they can do it so we get a good meat at a price we can afford, they could go into farming at a much more economic level and offer it cheaper of go to a much more expensive form of husbandry but could the poor afford the product of such a farming practise??

So it seems we have to take the bitter with the sweet.

Originally Posted by blackgang

Granted, it is not the hog we used to butcher in October on the ranch, but it is being raised and a 30% profit margin has been figured into the asking price per pound and that is a cheap as they can do it so we get a good meat at a price we can afford, they could go into farming at a much more economic level and offer it cheaper of go to a much more expensive form of husbandry but could the poor afford the product of such a farming practise??

So it seems we have to take the bitter with the sweet.

Having lost someone close courtesy of a MRSA infection, I find the risk of antibiotic-resistant staph to be far too bitter. (Granted, he picked it up at a hospital in the States- something I remind people in the States about when they say they'd be afraid to go into the hospital in Thailand.) I think the trick is to go back to local production and distribution. Despite praising Nieman ranch, I don't really think we should or will be able to afford the kind of transportation enterprises that the really big industrial food operations need to survive. Oil prices have already once reached a point where this became unsustainable from a business angle, and they will again, just about when the economy starts to recover, probably.

The original pig-MRSA connection article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/opinion/12kristof.html?th&emc

They have medicine resistant diseases all over the planet, and as long as medical research finds meds that kill diseases the diseases will find ways around it, that is Darwins fault I guess as he the one that figured it out as much as anybody, hell there is even a med resistant malaria over on the c\Cambo/Thai border, how long before it gets to Central??

Thats what you get for breaking Mother Natures Rules and she is a nasty mean bitch, kinda like Mustavaclit, Mother do not want you fucking serious, only for fun and as long as the head count go up she will continue to try to kill some off.