Evidence points toward Smithfield-owned Farm as source of Swine Flu

Tom Philpott at Grist was way out in front of this one on Saturday morning.  He points to several great sources which I’ll summarize below, but I want to stress that you should read his excellent piece on this.

• A timeline (originally published April 6th) on the disease-tracking blog Biosurveillance indicates that residents in heavily affected areas suspect a farm operated by Granjas Carroll (50% owned by American company Smithfield) is the source.  According to residents, Granjas Carroll attributed the flu to… “the flu.”
• An article in a Vera Cruz paper, La Marcha, declares:   “Granjas Carroll, causa de epidemia en La Gloria.”  The translation of the headline, as well as the sub-headline that follows it, according to this Babelfish translation:  ”Carroll farms, cause of epidemic in the Gloria:  Settlers ask the intervention of the state government so that the federal authorities supervise the porcícolas faecal remainders that company generates.”  The last paragraph of the article notes that the Mexican Secretary of Health dismissed the notion.
• An article in La Journada, (English version), paints an ugly picture of the farming practices Granjas Carrol apparently participates in.

For their part, Smithfield took a pummeling on the stock market and in the court of opinion Monday, but is currently denying all wrong doing:  ”[We have] no reason to believe that the virus is in any way connected to its operations in Mexico.”  Natasha Chart, who has been all over this story as well, doesn’t buy it.  She reminds us that “the food industry is notorious for trying to cover up problems with their products as was revealed during the peanut contamination fiasco.”  Charles Lemos, points to a 2006 Rolling stone article on how dangerously unsustainable Smithfield’s operations are, which explains:

A lot of pig shit is one thing; a lot of highly toxic pig shit is another. The excrement of Smithfield hogs is hardly even pig shit: On a continuum of pollutants, it is probably closer to radioactive waste than to organic manure. The reason it is so toxic is Smithfield’s efficiency. The company produces 6 billion pounds of packaged pork each year. That’s a remarkable achievement, a prolificacy unimagined only two decades ago, and the only way to do it is to raise pigs in astonishing, unprecedented concentrations.

Lemos then brings the story full circle:  ”That unprecedented concentration is what makes epidemics like the one we are now experiencing possible. The problem is the industrial-scale CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations) which produce hogs and hog waste on scale not imaginable.”

Go here for the full story: Why does the swine flu seem to be more deadly in Mexico? – By David Dobbs – Slate Magazine

1) Perhaps population-level genetic differences render the U.S. population more resistant to this strain’s effects than the Mexican population.

2) We’re really looking at two different viruses, but WHO and the CDC haven’t picked up on it.

3) Some secondary health issue present in Mexico but not elsewhere—another bug common in the population or in hospitals—is combining with the swine flu to make it more deadly there.

4) Some difference in the way we’re tracking and counting cases—a “surveillance difference”—is making the Mexico situation seem worse than it is and the U.S. situation seem better than it really is.

Swine Flu and Factory Farms

Or what I’ve learned today are called, “confined animal feeding operations,” or CAFOs . The term most used right now is the factory farm, turning livestock production more into just that a production and not a farm. It’s merely to up the profits and usually means horrible living conditions for animals and awful working conditions for low wage workers.

Well, David Kirby makes a connection that seems obvious to me, Swine Flu Outbreak — Nature Biting Back at Industrial Animal Production? but of course it’s better to hold judgment until there’s evidence, right?

Full Story via OC Progressive:: Swine Flu and Factory Farms.

Grist has picked up the story in the U.S.

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.

via Daily Kos: Swine Flu Linked to Smithfield Factory Farms by Mexican Press.

a leson for the  America Continent ?

5 Years After: Portugal’s Drug Decriminalization Policy Shows Positive Results

From Scientific American

In the face of a growing number of deaths and cases of HIV linked to drug abuse, the Portuguese government in 2001 tried a new tack to get a handle on the problem—it decriminalized the use and possession of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, LSD and other illicit street drugs. The theory: focusing on treatment and prevention instead of jailing users would decrease the number of deaths and infections.

Sounds like they were having a similar problem as US and Latin America

Five years later, the number of deaths from street drug overdoses dropped from around 400 to 290 annually, and the number of new HIV cases caused by using dirty needles to inject heroin, cocaine and other illegal substances plummeted from nearly 1,400 in 2000 to about 400 in 2006,  according to a report released recently by the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C, libertarian think tank.

Are you fallowing that  Obama , Mexico ?

More at Scientific American

Traducido por Jose J Castillo

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Ante un número creciente de muertes y casos del CIDA relacionado al consumo de drogas, el gobierno portugués en 2001 intentó una nueva tactica para enfrentar el problema despenalizando el uso y la posesión de la heroína, cocaína, marihuana, LSD y otras drogas ilícitas. La teoría: el enfoque en tratamiento y prevención en vez de encarcelar a usuarios disminuiría el número de muertes e infecciones.

Cinco años más tarde, el número de muertes de sobredosis de drogas cayó de alrededor 400 a 290 anualmente, y el número de nuevos casos de CIDA causados por el uso de agujas sucias para inyectar heroína, cocaína y otras sustancias ilegales cayó a plomo de casi 1,400 en 2000 a aproximadamente 400 en 2006, según un informe liberado recientemente por Cato Institute, un grupo de Washington, D.C,

“Ahora en vez de ser puestos en la prisión, los adictos van a centros de tratamiento y ellos aprenden a controlar su uso de medicina o medicinas que se bajan completamente,” relatan que el autor Glenn Greenwald, un antiguo Estado de Nueva York litigante constitucional, dijo durante una sesión informativa de prensa en Cato la semana pasada.

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• Drug Decriminalization In Portugal (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)
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