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WORD COUNT
617
MAY 6, 2008
SWINE FLU:
WARNING, OR THE REAL DEAL? – by Sara Franklin
This swine
flu thing: Outbreak, epidemic, pandemic. Has the potential to be all
three. And it's VERY scary. I remember being at the WHO (World Health
Organization) when Avian Flu was the hot button topic in the global
health community. There was absolute panic, and preparing for the
expected outbreak put everything else on the back burner in Geneva.
Avian flu temporarily dwarfed HIV, TB, malaria, and a whole slew of
other diseases that kill enormous numbers of people. After all the panic
and last minute funding and staffing, avian flu barely made a dent.
Swine flu
is different. Whereas avian flu developed in a centuries-old system of
Asian peasants living in close contact with their subsistence livestock,
swine flu is the result of large-scale industrial agriculture, a system
that has only developed in the last half-century.
The only
deaths so far have been in Mexico. Why? No one knows, not exactly, and
not yet. However, the fact that Mexico's medical care is difficult to
access (financially for the vast majority of the country, and
geographically for the large rural population) certainly isn't helping
the situation.
In
addition to being sad, this is infuriating. The company that owns — or
"half-owns," as the media is putting it — the "host" outbreak site is a
U.S.-based company. Not only American, but typically American — the
largest pork producer in the world! We're talking million-hog feedlots.
Sickening stench, incredible negative environmental impact (manure
reservoirs, for example, and concentrated CO2 emissions), and most
relevant, disease passed from pig-to-pig and now pig-to-person.
This is
the way America farms now. Our animals and our plants. En masse, only
one species per area, “monoculture” is the term in the ag world. And
what the world is finally being made aware of is how treacherous a path
we're paving. We've messed with ecosystems and their natural protective
mechanisms (biodiversity), and now we're paying the price. But wait,
it's not exactly the United States that's paying the price, at least not
yet. It's Mexico and Mexicans: quick-moving infection rates and death
tolls; travel warnings; talk of closing borders; and the inevitable
stigma. As if Mexico didn't have enough on its plate already...
That "Big
Ag" in the United States has deemed it appropriate to not only farm this
way in the United States (bad for us), but to export these agricultural
practices (bad for us AND all the folks we inflict our systems upon) to
countries where land and labor are cheaper — all facilitated by those
"development" policies under the umbrella of the North American Free
Trade Agreement — is unforgivable. To make mistakes on our own land,
with our own soil, and our own population is one thing. But that we've
inflicted this upon Mexico, and as we're fast learning, the world, is
entirely another.
In the
meantime, the U.S. government and "Big Ag" have gotten us into this
mess. And an apology (if ever we step forward with one) isn't going to
solve the problem. We should be frightened. And angry. We've let "Big
Ag" dominate our food system for too long, allowing their profit-hungry
motives and facade of "efficiency" to shush those concerned with the
environmental, health, and yes, even economic impacts of industrial
agriculture. Now, we're in deep, deep trouble. We've been given several
warnings - tainted tomatoes, spinach, peanut butter. How many chances
did we think we were going to get before things got completely out of
control? Maybe swine flu is our last warning, or maybe we're really in
for it this time. Either way, it's time to open our eyes to the broad
impacts of mass food production, processing, and distribution in this
country and abroad. It's a system the United States has created, and we
are responsible for the consequences.
--
Sara Franklin is the capacity building coordinator for WHY (World Hunger
Year).
www.whyhunger.org
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