A couple people have asked us about the “swine flu”.
I usually try to focus more on the joys of eating real food rather than the evils of participating in industrial food production, but every now and then you can’t see around the elephant in the room.
First of all, in case it’s not clear, you can’t get swine flu from eating pork. It’s called swine flu because the virus seems to have developed its uniqueness, at least partially, in pigs (who are quite like humans in a lot of ways).
It’s not confirmed that the huge Smithfield hog facility in Vera Cruz is where the new virus was created and spread to humans, that’s just what some people (including some residents) suspect.
The reason that Smithfield seems a likely culprit is that these concentrated animal operations, in addition to to creating tons of toxic waste and lousy meat, are also basically in the business of developing new and treatment-resistant viruses and bacteria. They keep pushing the limits of animal crowding and hygiene with the promise of technology to fend off disease. Until the bacteria or virus emerge that beats the current technology. (Note that Smithfield’s own press release, which says that there is no evidence yet that they are to blame, says that they routinely vaccinate their herds).
This is yet another reason why allowing Hubbs-SeaWorld to build a concentrated feeding facility off the San Diego coast is a terrible, terrible, idea.
Anyway, what’s done is done, and the virus is now being transmitted from humans to humans, so changing our food system now won’t do any good for this potential pandemic. But if as individuals we all started eating meat from thoughtful family farms rather than these industrial producers, we might slow down the rate at which these new bugs are created and released in the future. Plus, we would be enjoying our food a lot more.