Swine Flu and Factory Farming

Woo-hoo! This flu outbreak has become another epidemic media sensation! I just love those.

But this aspect of the story will probably not rise to the level of over-hyped, or even mildly hyped, or even plainly presented, news: factory farming by a Smithfield subsidiary is probably responsible for the swine flu outbreak.

Grist's Tom Philpott writes about the flu-industrial hog farm connection:

... Smithfield operates massive hog-raising operations [in] Perote, Mexico, in the state of Vera Cruz, where the outbreak originated. The operations, grouped under a Smithfield subsidiary called Granjas Carrol, raise 950,000 hogs per year, according to the company Web site—a level nearly equal to Smithfield’s total U.S. hog production. ...

I just searched Google News for "swine flu Smithfield" and got back that Grist story and a detailed report on the Huffington Post by David Kirby, "Swine Flu Outbreak -- Nature Biting Back at Industrial Animal Production?"

It isn't a 'story' just like it isn't a story when confinement chicken farming becomes a major nexus for the spread of avian flu, which it is. I remember reading a story about bird flu once where upwards of 70,000 birds were slaughtered on two Eastern European farms. Two farms. Nowhere in the article was the production method discussed, let alone mentioned as a possible problem.

Yes, these illnesses can spread through smaller farms and wild animals. Though as I've said before, a factory farm is a filthy, unplumbed slum for animals. Human beings who live in filthy slum conditions are less healthy overall and more likely to fall prey to, or start, disease epidemics - everybody knows that, but it doesn't translate into what's perceived as being the best practice for animal growing.

The same is not true of non-living things. Get a pile of screwdrivers together and they are no more or less 'healthy' than a single screwdriver sitting in a spacious drawer away from its kind.

Critters aren't widgets. That leads to a lot of messy complications, but the principles of biology aren't wrong because they're inconvenient.

What you can do? Cut meat consumption and stop eating factory farmed meat.

Which kind is the factory farmed kind? Any kind that isn't raised on pasture, without confinement. Look for grass fed meat, especially. An organic label alone isn't sufficient guarantee of best practices, though organically raised animals can't be fed pre-emptive antibiotics, so they have to be raised at least somewhat more healthfully.

Update: An EnviroKnow transcript of today's press briefing on the flu mentions agriculture only to note that you can't get swine flu from eating pork. None of the preventive or containment measures described relate to unhealthy agricultural practices.

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