La Gloria, Mexico, Smithfield's Waste Dump

by Natasha Chart · 2009-04-27 10:56:00 UTC
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Hog confinement system; by friendsoffamilyfarmersCharles Lemos at MyDD writes about the epicenter of swine flu in Mexico, a small town called La Gloria where as much as 30 percent of the population has been stricken with flu-like illnesses. Local residents and Mexican health officials are putting the blame on Smithfield partner Granjas Carroll, Lemos translates from a report in La Marcha:

... Residents of the community of La Gloria, in the municipality of Perote, asked the state government of Veracruz to intercede with federal authorities to inspect the installations of Granjas Carroll, whom they believe is responsible for the infection that has stricken 30% of its population.

According to one of the members of the community, Eli Ferrer Cortés, the organic and fecal waste that Granjas Carroll produces are not treated properly causing a contamination of the community's water and air. ...

Lemos also points to the blog of James M. Wilson V, MD, Biosurveillance, where Wilson reports that outbreaks in the town were traced to a fly that breeds in the manure lagoons.

Smithfield's official denial said that none of their hogs were infected. That may just be a lie, the food industry is notorious for trying to cover up problems with their products as was revealed during the peanut contamination fiasco.

Though if it isn't a lie, and none of hogs are infected, should they get a pass for only putting shit in people's drinking water and creating a ripe breeding ground for insect-borne disease? I certainly don't think so.

(Aerial photography of a typical confinement hog farm with attendant lagoons of pig manure courtesy of friendsoffamilyfarmers on Flickr.)

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