Manure Lagoons and Swine Flu
Apr 29th, 2009 by admin
The Times Online spotlights pig farms owned by Granjas Carroll de Mexico and Smithfield Foods (the largest pork producer in the world) in La Gloria, Veracruz, Mexico, as the possible origination point of the swine flu that has shut down Mexico City (pop. 20 million). As someone who’s always cast a critical eye at modern agro-business, a Mexiphile, and a sometime traveler to Veracruz (with friends who live there–Cosamaloapan in the house!), I’m a little concerned–especially at the cavalier attitude of the company:
Residents of La Gloria have long complained about the clouds of flies that are drawn the so-called “manure lagoons” created by such mega-farms, known in the agriculture business as Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs).
It is now known that there was a widespread outbreak of a powerful respiratory disease in the La Gloria area earlier this month, with some of the town’s residents falling ill in February. Health workers soon intervened, sealing off the town and spraying chemicals to kill the flies that were reportedly swarming through people’s homes.
A spokeswoman for Smithfield, Keira Ullrich, said that the company had found no clinical signs or symptoms of the presence of swine influenza in its swine herd or its employees working at its joint ventures anywhere in Mexico. Meanwhile, Mexico’s National Organisation of Pig Production and Producers released its own statement, saying: “We deny completely that the influenza virus affecting Mexico originated in pigs because it has been scientifically demonstrated that this is not possible.”
According reports gathered on the website of James Wilson, a founding member of the Biosurveillance Indication and Warning Analysis Community (BIWAC), about 60 per cent of La Gloria’s 3,000-strong population have sought medical assistance since February.
When I’m in the States, I try to avoid eating meat, and when I do it’s nearly always from a farmer’s market, which is supplied by small farms in upstate New York. I do this because I’m principally concerned about the welfare of the animals before they are slaughtered (this does, yes, make me a hypocrite, I admit). But these small farms are also a heck of a lot less harmful to the environment, as the Times Online article demonstrates.
Unfortunately, the vegetarian choices in Peru and Bolivia leave a lot to be desired outside of the major tourist centers. And add one Peruvian girlfriend who loves to cook (and cooks well)–well, I am a carnivore to the core while I am here! But, judging from the several chickens and the guinea pigs that are fattening up in the courtyard of our apartment building here (and the cows, sheep, and–yes–pigs strolling and rooting through the countryside just outside of town), I imagine–I hope!–that the meat that ends up on my plate isn’t as thoroughly industrialized as the supermarket meat available in the States. (Although I was seriously depressed last year when when I spotted an industrial poultry farm in Guatemala; I had thought all the chicken that I ate was local, semi-wild chicken.)
(H/T Mex Files and IKN.)
Recommended Reading: The Omnivore’s Dilemma; Skinny Bitch.
All be on the road for the rest of today and most of tomorrow.