The controversial issue of intensive hog barns has heated to a boiling point in the wake of the H1N1 flu outbreak.
Fingers are being pointed at a large hog barn in La Gloria, Mexico, as the source and some organizations say the outbreak proves that intensive livestock operations are inherently dangerous.
But there’s been no proof that the disease came from the partially Smithfield-owned barns near the Mexican town, and the company plans to test the herd, which it says has shown no signs of sick pigs or people.
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“So the public can have full confidence in the health of our Mexican pig herd, yesterday we submitted samples from our farm in Veracruz for further testing under the direction of Mexican government authorities,” the company said in a news release.
“The results will enable us to conclude with certainty that the A(H1N1) strain is not present in our hogs.”
A media floodlight has shone on the town in the wake of tracing the first known human case of the new H1N1 strain to Veracruz, emphasizing a dispute between local people and the giant American corporation. Allegations formed the basis of a widely circulated story by The Times of London, headlined “Mexico outbreak traced to ‘manure lagoons’ at pig farm.”
The story contains no proof the disease came from the Smithfield operation.
“Residents of La Gloria have long complained about the clouds of flies that are drawn (to) the so-called ‘manure lagoons’ created by such mega-farms,” said the story on April 28.
On May 3 the story was updated, with no new evidence of the barn being the source of the disease outbreak.
“Residents say that an uncovered lake of pig excrement – seen by The Times – seeps into the water and the earth and sends noxious fumes into the air; there are several stories of piles of dead pigs generating swarms of flies,” said the story.
Such media accounts have been used as the basis for calls by interest groups to crack down on big barns.
“In light of news reports that the swine flu outbreak may have begun in La Gloria, a town in Veracruz, Mexico, near a cluster of factory farms co-owned by Smithfield Foods, the Organic Consumers Association and its Mexican counterpart, Via Organica, want Smithfield’s North American operations shut down until their lagoons of pig feces – where viruses can reside for three to six months – are tested and there is a plan for dealing with infected waste,” said the American organization in a news release.
The internet has been abuzz with allegations against the big barn in Mexico, with many comments on discussion sites calling for large hog barns to be banned.
The disease outbreak has led to other source claims, such as the one that suggests that a combination of Mexican drug cartels and al Qaeda are behind the creation and spread.
The calls for a crackdown on the hog industry have not come only from organic producers targeting big barns.
In Egypt the government has moved to exterminate all of the nation’s 300,000 hogs as a public health measure.
Outraged producers claim the move is an attack on the nation’s Coptic Christian community, which produces and consumes pork, by the Muslim-dominated government, which abhors the meat as unclean.
English professor Frank Furedi of the University of Kent has been arguing on his website and in interviews that the furor over H1N1 isn’t simply a case of legitimate public concerns over the disease threat. He believes that “moral entrepreneurs” are exploiting the situation to push their longstanding agendas.
Some groups “are very much committed to the idea of using these scares as a way of regulating our lives,” said Furedi.
“When you have an event like a flu outbreak, it becomes a focus for blaming. And blaming is a profoundly moral act. It’s about assessing responsibility, it’s indicating who’s bad and who’s good and where the evil lies.”
In this particular situation, the outbreak of H1N1 has given enemies of large scale livestock production a chance to push their views.
“From the outset, when you had the beginnings of the swine flu, a lot of people – particularly environmentalists – began to argue it’s not particularly surprising that this is happening. There is an implicit condemnation of modern science, of industry, of consumerism as being part and parcel of why this has occurred,” said Furedi.