Swine Flu and Hog Farms

SouthernStudies commented on the Swine Flu --
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REPORT - What else is breeding in factory hog farms?
by Sue Sturgis
The story we reported this week about bloggers' speculation that the swine flu epidemic sweeping the globe may have originated in a Mexican community that's home to massive industrial hog operations owned by Virginia-based Smithfield Foods has jumped to the mainstream media.
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The Associated Press reported on claims by residents of La Gloria in the state of Veracruz that their community -- where a 4-year-old boy was among the first to test positive for the virus, a genetic mix of swine, bird and human flu -- is the "ground zero" for the outbreak that has sickened hundreds of people worldwide and killed more than 150 in Mexico alone:
As far back as late March, roughly one-sixth of the residents here in the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz began complaining of respiratory infections that they say can be traced to a farm that lies upwind five miles (8.5 kilometers) to the north, in the town of Xaltepec. But Jose Luis Martinez, a 34-year-old resident of La Gloria, said he knew the minute he learned about the outbreak on the news and heard a description of the symptoms: fever, coughing, joint aches, severe headache and, in some cases, vomiting and diarrhea. "When we saw it on the television, we said to ourselves, 'This is what we had,'" he said Monday. "It all came from here. ... The symptoms they are suffering are the same that we had here."Granjas Carroll de Mexico, a half-owned subsidiary of Smithfield, operates eight hog farms in the area. The Mexican media has reported that health officials traced the La Gloria outbreak to a type of fly that reproduces in pig feces. But Smithfield denies the allegations, saying it's found no clinical signs of swine flu in its hogs or employees at its farms in Mexico.
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Mexican agriculture officials also said this week that inspectors found no sign of swine flu among pigs around the suspected farm. However, the farm's manager told the AP that no one from the government inspected his facility for swine flu.
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With the epidemic hurting its profits, the pork industry has asked health officials to rename the disease. However, the World Health Organization is sticking with the "swine flu" designation because the virus is the type that affects pigs, Bloomberg reports.
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Back in Mexico, residents of La Gloria have long complained about conditions at the Smithfield subsidiary, saying they are bothered by foul odors, flies and problems with water contamination from the massive lagoons where hog waste is stored. After an outbreak of severe respiratory illness in February, health workers sealed off the town and sprayed chemicals to kill flies that were swarming in people's homes, the Times U.K. reports.
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The Times also points out that the epidemic is likely fuel more controversy in Veracruz, home to thousands of farmers who claim the state stole their land in 1992. Now part of a movement called Los 400 Pueblos, the farmers -- most of them poor and many indigenous -- have become famous for their naked demonstrations in Mexico City. (For photos of the protests, click here.)
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Regardless of whether health officials ultimately tie the swine flu epidemic back to Smithfield's hog operations in Mexico, the story has already helped illuminate how factory farms can act as a vector for environmental injustice, imposing suffering on nearby communities because of the serious ecological problems associated with industrial livestock operations.
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It's a harsh reality that many residents of the United States are all too familiar with -- especially residents of the rural U.S. South, where such farming methods were first developed before being exported south of the border ... (Please click here for the rest of the story.)