home » Swine flu & Smithfield foods

Swine flu & Smithfield foods

by Paula | 25 April 2009 | permalink | comments [3]
Tags: disease, globalization
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I’m posting here a copy of an email I sent this morning to the ComFood listserv regarding the current outbreak of H1N1 swine influenza virus. If you have further information or links, please add to the comments.

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This morning I’ve been reading about the swine flu outbreak in Mexico which now appears to be crossing the US border, with 5 confirmed cases in CA and 2 in TX. In Mexico, 68 people have died.

According to the swine flu timeline put together by a company called Veratect, who evidently map infection disease events for clients like the WHO & CDC:

Residents [of La Gloria, Perote Municipality, Veracruz State, Mexico] believed the outbreak had been caused by contamination from pig breeding farms located in the area. They believed that the farms, operated by Granjas Carroll, polluted the atmosphere and local water bodies, which in turn led to the disease outbreak. According to residents, the company denied responsibility for the outbreak and attributed the cases to ‘flu.’ However, a municipal health official stated that preliminary investigations indicated that the disease vector was a type of fly that reproduces in pig waste and that the outbreak was linked to the pig farms. It was unclear whether health officials had identified a suspected pathogen responsible for this outbreak.

Granjas Carroll is a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods. According to the Smithfield Foods website, Granjas Carroll produced 950,000 hogs in fiscal 2008.

So now it looks like Big Ag is not only responsible for poisoning people directly with contaminated foods, but also for unleashing a deadly pandemic.

My question for the list — is this even theoretically possible with small-scale organic hog farming?

Here’s the CDC’s statement about H1N1 swine influenza virus: http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/?s_cid=tw_epr_55

CNN: Texas family quarantined with swine flu virus: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/25/swine.flu.family/

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Hat tip to @hyperlocavore who originally tweeted the swine flu timeline link, which is how I got hold of it.

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UPDATE: Swine flu subreddit

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UPDATE 04.25.09 10:00 am: Chinese agribiz giant eyes Smithfield takeover

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UPDATE 04.25.09 11:54 am: So far nothing at Google News for flu smithfield or flu "Granjas Carroll" or flu Cofco

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UPDATE 04.25.09 7:49 pm: The company responsible for putting together the flu outbreak timeline, Veratect, has established a Twitter feed for nearly real-time updates on the unfolding swine flu situation.

Fellow Comfoodie Tom Philpott has broken the Smithfield connection story at Grist.

Huffington Post has indirectly made the connection in its own excellent independent piece, which calls for an investigation of Mexican CAFOs.

comments

1. Hi,

   Thank you for your excellent article.

   Please take note that one of Smithfieldfoods sub-companies is called: Campofrío Food Group

   (Europe).
   The Chairman of the Board from that Campofrío is Mr. Pedro Ballvé Lantero, who amongst others

   has been member of the Trilateral Commission.
   As we speak the Commission is having a two day rally? see: http://www.trilateral.org/recent.htm

   (Alex Jones?)

   Mr, Gregg Schmidt, from Smithfieldfood Poland, has given 5000 to a political campagne in 2002

   http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/gregg-schmidt.asp?cycle=02

   To make things more interesting, just see how much money Smithfield has given, in supporting

   political interest back in 2002:

   http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/committees/smithfield-foods-inc-political-action-committee

   -hampac.asp?cycle=02

   or in 2008:

   http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/committees/smithfield-foods-inc-political-action-committee

   -hampac.asp?cycle=08

   There’s nothing like a free lunch, is it not?

   I’m sure a lot of connections are there, yet to be seen by others.

   This might be usefull:

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:2009_H1N1_flu_outbreak

   Good luck.

   — Urgent · 26 April 2009, 06:38 · #

2. Hi,
   I live in Mexico and have lots of links (in spanish) about the connection between the swine flu outbreak and the operation of Granjas Carroll in La Gloria. Citizens of this town have been fighting for years trying to stop the dangerous activities of this multi-national company. They have been harassed, imprisoned and still await their sentence. Granjas Carroll and the corrupt mexican government treat these people like criminals and deny all evidence that the pandemic has any connection with the operation of the pig breeding farms in Mexico.
   As soon as the people in La Gloria started to get sick and die, the inhabitants had no doubts about where the disease was coming from. Health authorities said that it was the people’s fault if they were getting sick because they used traditional remedies instead of going to the hospitals. But citizens were indeed seeking for medical help, only to find ignorance, not medicines there. The health authorities in Veracruz reported that people were getting sick because the climate was very cold and there was too much dust in the air.
   It’s not necessary to be really smart to see that if we have a new virus coming from pigs and this virus originated in Mexico, then the most likely scenario would be that Granjas Carroll should be held responsible for this. There are pictures available of the contaminated water bodies and the large piles of dead pig bodies stacked out in the open. Wether the virus spread though the contact with contaminated water or through the flies it’s unclear. However, I think that Granjas Carroll owes an explaination to the mexican people and the rest of the world.
   Do you have any idea about what can we do so that people start talking about this? Here in Mexico all this information has been hidden in the last few days and corruption is likely to win the battle if nobody takes action. I think this is a nice example about how free trade agreements and globalization can affect third world countries and ultimately, the rest of the world.
   Please help us spread the truth!!!

   — Panchita · 27 April 2009, 17:36 · #

3. Didn’t take long for the conspiracy hypothesists (not “theorists”, as theory implies evidence) to swoop in on this post with their tinfoil-hat garbage, did it?

   — The Last Liberal Atheist · 27 April 2009, 17:44 · #

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