How The NAFTA Flu Exploded

[douglas9]

Smithfield Farms Fled US Environmental Laws to Open a Gigantic Pig Farm in Mexico, and All We Got Was this Lousy Swine Flu

US and Mexico authorities claim that neither knew about the “swine flu” outbreak until April 24. But after hundreds of residents of a town in Veracruz, Mexico, came down with its symptoms, the story had already hit the Mexican national press by April 5. The daily La Jornada reported:

Clouds of flies emanate from the rusty lagoons where the Carroll Ranches business tosses the fecal wastes of its pig farms, and the open-air contamination is already generating an epidemic of respiratory infections in the town of La Gloria, in the Perote Valley, according to Town Administrator Bertha Crisóstomo López.

The town has 3,000 inhabitants, hundreds of whom reported severe flu symptoms in March.

CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta, reporting from Mexico, has identified a La Gloria child who contracted the first case of identified “swine flu” in February as “patient zero,” five-year-old Edgar Hernández, now a survivor of the disease.

http://www.narconews.com/Issue57/article3512.html

[librechik]

1. fecal ponds are repugnant, but not relevant --the disease is pneumatic

You contract it from aerosolized sputum, that is sneezes and coughs, lung juice, that then gets on the hand and is ingested through the mouth nose or eyes.

Maybe the little boy was close enough to a sick pig to get sneezed on. They don't know for sure yet.

[omega minimo]

4. you dismiss it so quickly! the environment is contaminated, do you suppose birds might be there?

The townspeople are already complaining about the water and air contamination........

[librechik]

16. indeed yes--but I've found it difficult to get close to wild birds in my experience

Of course the true danger is human to human contact, and we have that in spades right now. Remember, in 1918 international air travel was unknown. And a virus that spreads through aerosolized sputum is very difficult to protect against.

Let's address the toxic waste issue in a different context that stays more on the factual rather than speculative side this time. Lives are at stake, and little is known for certain in virology.

BTW, I like the NAFTA reference, though it might be unfair--I can't think of a more toxic and vexing issue that involves crossing borders.

[omega minimo]

17. The birds are in the toxic pig water and flying elsewhere............

[hedgehog]

27. I think the real concern is that the birds are leaving feces in the water

which is then re-used in the pig sheds, thereby exposing the pigs to avian flu viruses.

[omega minimo]

29. Right, it's a vehicle for all the shit to get mixed up. The birds and water can also transmit.

Not necessary to get "sneezed on by a pig"

[hedgehog]

31. Well, pigs don't take care of themselves. The people who feed the pigs

get sneezed on, then go home to their families.

[omega minimo]

33. wow it's amazing how the simplest concepts can be turned into topdogging

if you rilly rilly want to be that way :puke: :freak:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5560307&mesg_id=5560395

[yardwork]

25. The fecal ponds dry up and fly around as dust. It could be relevant.

Let's wait and see what the epidemiologists find. There's no question that huge agribusinesses are raising meat in unhealthy ways now.

[truedelphi]

32. Thanks yardwork.

Let's hope that we have some independent, non- Big Agri sponsered epidemiologists working on this.

If we have the same type of bought-out, and made-to-spin for their paycheck "researchers" as Big Oil got us activists regarding the MTBE issue, it could be a while before the Ah-h, dust settles, and we are given the actual truth.

[omega minimo]

40. as in factory farming, the environment is subsumed by lack of diversity and is out of balance.

Could be a breeding ground for disease.

Thanks for your sensible comments.

[Mari333]

2. oh snap! NAFTA FLU. NT

[BR_Parkway]

3. Love the name - NAFTA Flu - sure calls it more for what it really is

[Occam Bandage]

5. Silly silly.

Reminds me of Freepers calling it the "Mexican flu," or the "Open Borders Flu."

[damntexdem]

8. NAFTA Flu -- keep repeating it.

Maybe the name will stick.

[omega minimo]

9. .

.....how the Virginia-based Smithfield Farms came to Mexico: In 1985, Smithfield Farms received what was, at the time, the most expensive fine in history – $12.6 million – for violating the US Clean Water Act at its pig facilities near the Pagan River in Smithfield, Virginia, a tributary that flows into the Chesapeake Bay. The company, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) dumped hog waste into the river.

It was a case in which US environmental law succeeded in forcing a polluter, Smithfield Farms, to construct a sewage treatment plant at that facility after decades of using the river as a mega-toilet. But “free trade” opened a path for Smithfield Farms to simply move its harmful practices next door into Mexico so that it could evade the tougher US regulators.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into effect on January 1, 1994. That very same year Smithfield Farms opened the “Carroll Ranches” in the Mexican state of Veracruz through a new subsidiary corporation, “Agroindustrias de México.”

[Junkdrawer]

23. Robert Wallace on DemocracyNow also called it the NAFTA Flu...

The "NAFTA Flu": Critics Say Swine Flu Has Roots in Forcing Poor Countries to Accept Western Agribusiness

...

AMY GOODMAN: Robert Wallace, you’ve called it the “NAFTA flu.” Why?

ROBERT WALLACE: Well, swine flu—in some ways, the pork industry is kind of correct. “Swine flu” is a bit a misnomer, but not in the way they think. Because of the reasons I stated, it’s actually comprised of influenzas from—that have typically infected swine, typically infected birds and humans.

But the problem is, is that puts the onus on the swine as being the cause for why this kind of influenza has come about, and it’s just that is simply not the case. The swine are not in the driver’s seat. They are not in a position to organize themselves into what are now cities of pigs that stretch around the world.

We really have to go back to the livestock revolution. Before World War II, poultry and pigs were basically farmed in backyard operations across this country. So we’re talking about poultry flocks of the size of seventy chickens. After the World War II, all those independent farming operations were—many of them were basically put under one roof and increasingly put under the control of particular corporations—Holly Farms, Tyson, Perdue. And the geography of the poultry and pork change. So, while previously pork and poultry were grown across the country, it was now grown, or they’re now raised within only a few southeastern states here in the United States. After the livestock revolution, poultry and pigs were now being grown and raised in much larger populations, so we go from seventy poultry now up to populations of 30,000 at a time. So we have cities of pigs and poultry.

That model was subsequently spread around the world. So, starting in the 1970s, the livestock revolution was brought to East Asia. You have the CP Group, which is now the fourth—world’s fourth-largest poultry company, in Thailand. That company subsequently brought the livestock revolution into China once China opened up its doors in 1980. So we have cities of poultry and pork developing around the world.

And this phenomenon goes hand in hand with the very structural adjustment programs that the IMF and the World Bank helped institute during this time. So if you’re a poor country, you’re having financial difficulties, in order to get some money to bail you out, you had to go to the International Monetary Fund for a loan. And in return, the IMF would make demands on you to change your economy in such a way that would allow you—will force you to open up your economy to outside corporations, including agricultural companies. And, of course, that would have a detrimental effect on domestic agriculture. So, small companies within poor countries could not out-compete large agribusinesses from the North that are subsidized by the industrial governments. So they’re not able to compete with them, so there’s—they either must contract their labor and land to the companies, foreign companies that are coming into their country, or they basically retire out of the business and sell their land to the large companies that are coming in. So, in other words, the spread of the cities of pork and poultry go hand in hand with this structural adjustment program.

And, of course, NAFTA is our local version of that. The North American Free Trade Agreement was signed in 1993, instituted in 1994, and has had a subsequent effect on how poultry and pigs are raised in Mexico. So, from that time, the pattern I just described, the small farmers had to either bulk up, in terms of acquiring the farms around them, acquiring the pigs around them, or had to sell out to agribusinesses that were coming in. So the Smithfield subsidiary that is now being accused of being the possible plant of origin for this H1N1 is a subsidiary of an outside corporation.

...

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/29/the_nafta_flu

[omega minimo]

6. InfluNAFTA.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5558003&mesg_id=5558042

[cali]

7. i'm very interested in the possible nexus between factory farming and

this flu strain, but there is as of now no scientific evidence to establish such a link.

This article is obviously pushing an agenda, but there isn't the evidence to back it.

[damntexdem]

12. It is a reason for a thorough public health investigation.

Epidemiological investigation can determine whether or not links exist.

[cali]

15. absolutely. there is ample reason to investigate.

[omega minimo]

19. Worth further investigation, esp. as mainstream news reported connection last night

[Tashca]

21. I agree with your assessment

I too believe this article and similar ones are pushing an agenda. They seem to be confusing two significant problems.

One the Influenza and the other factory farming.

On one hand it is opening peoples eyes to where their food is coming from and a much needed national discussion about food safety.....I hope this continues in depth.

On the other hand confusing safe food issues with the flu is not productive. I have seen no evidence that these two are related......but...I am also open to the possibility of refining production techniques in the future to eliminate the possibilities. If this is handled properly then we can continue our desire for safe food and safe practices.

It seems there is too much fear right now to even have a rational discussion......

[truedelphi]

34. Factory Pig Farms and common sense - Usually common sense does prove its case.

Big Oil tried for years to cover its sorry ass by saying that the tainted water and the sudden developing leukemias and blastomas brought about by MTBE, the gas additive, were not related to MTBE.

And of course, then there is the nasty business of Big Nicotine saying for five decades that
1) smoking is good for your health (Circa 1940-1960)
2) smoking is not related to lung diseases and lung cancer (1960 to 1999)

And no, I am not saying we can "prove" the relationship between factory pig farming and the new type of swine flu -= but the people using common sense who are "speculating" certainly have the right to do so.

[cali]

48. if there's a connection between factory farming and H1N1

science will be able to find it. speculation is fine, but it's no substitute for science.

[truedelphi]

49. Whose science? Like I am saying - MTBE "science" was controlled

By Big Oil.

Nicotine "science" was controlled by Big Tobacco.

And so forth.

It is only because for whatever reason Grey Davis, California Governor in the late nineties, got a hold of one of the few independent groups of scientists, led by Froines, that we escaped the perpetual use of the MTBE in our gasoline.

Do you really believe that "Big Agriculture" doesn't have any control over science realting to pig farms. Maybe you should examine Big Agri's history with pig farms in North Carolina.

If that was true, the independent phiesteria researcher who tried to make the state of North Carolina realize how the pig farms had caused the phisteria outbreak was ridiculed and theyattempted to black list her. Luckily she was able to continue with her work, so that for a while there, the state of North Carolina outlawed the pig factory farms.

[cali]

52. I don't think this is analogous.

and science certainly caught up with big tabacco- decades ago at that. And as you noted science also caught up with big oil. And no, I don't think big agriculture controls the WHO.

[truedelphi]

53. But the question for you about the WHO

Would be how much influence does Big Pharma have over the WHO?

[Bozita]

10. NAFTA FLU is the perfect label for the disease, imho.

It's certainly more accurate than "swine flu."

[cali]

13. actually, until there scientific evidence that links factory farming

and this outbreak it's not accurate. How DUers can be so cavalier about science, amazes me.

[ColbertWatcher]

43. Good point. n/t

[GetTheRightVote]

11. Read the article and it is a very descriptive and sick vision it gives you.

How horrible...

:kick:

[SIMPLYB1980]

14. That's just stupid.

Sounds like a teabagger wrote that.

[omega minimo]

18. Any factory farming in North Carolina? That firm was fined for dumping into Chesapeake Bay

[SIMPLYB1980]

22. Plenty of it, lots of pig farms around here. And dumping is wrong

and should be dealt with with sever fines. People are going to have their pork though, and not everyone has the space to raise a pig for food. So factory farms play their role in keeping people feed. Also as far as I know the Swine Flu has not been linked in any way to factory farming. More likely it came from a rural area where people live with pigs on a daily basis. That article and people that are calling this the NAFTA Flu are just using this to push their anti NAFTA agenda. I am neither pro or anti NAFTA, but I do think it needs a lot of renegotiations to at least make it work better for all of us in North America.

[omega minimo]

24. you didn't read the article or see the news that a major US pig producer is located

close to the town where "Patient Zero" lives..................... a link is in my post this thread.

[SIMPLYB1980]

36. Yes I read that article and the other two.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/International/WireStory?id=7445759&page=3

"But that's just a theory — and no one has any evidence that it happened in La Gloria."

"Mexican Agriculture Department inspectors found no sign of swine flu among pigs around the farm in Veracruz, and say that no infected pigs have been found yet anywhere in Mexico."

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeff-poor/2009/04/29/world-news-plays-eco-card-against-smithfield-foods-wake-swine-flu

"Once again, in its quest for a scapegoat for a crisis facing society, the media has set its sights on a large corporation."

"Smithfield has been the target of various left-wing groups on labor and environmental issues before, and Kofman brought up the environmental issues, tying them to the flu virus' first known victim, four-year-old Edgar Hernandez."

Did you read your own links?

[omega minimo]

37. WHAT I SAID WAS: "the news that a major US pig producer is located........"

in reply to your: "Also as far as I know the Swine Flu has not been linked in any way to factory farming. More likely it came from a rural area where people live with pigs on a daily basis."


Which sounded like you weren't aware of the factory pig farm. which is linked at the least by proximity to the home of Patient Zero.



This assumption bullshit is getting really old :evilfrown:

[SIMPLYB1980]

44. I was aware of the pig farm, and "As far as I know" from reading

reports of the cases their is 0 evidence that it came from the factory pig farm. Most pig farms are located in Rural area's, at least I've never seen one in the middle of the city, hence my "assumption" that the girl may have contracted the swine flew from some other sorce than the Factory Pig Farm.

Yes this assumption bullshit is getting old. You make a lot of them yourself. :evilfrown:

[omega minimo]

45. "sounded like you weren't aware of the factory pig farm. which is linked at the least by proximity"

"Which sounded like you weren't aware of the factory pig farm. which is linked at the least by proximity to the home of Patient Zero."

I was offering the info that sounded like you were unaware of.

Don't be a pig about it.

[SIMPLYB1980]

46. Linked by proximity and proximity only.

Sorry to be a pig about it, but you assumed I didn't know that when I typed. When I see evidence that it came from the pig farm I will jump up and down and scream with you.

[omega minimo]

47. very good, well see. it's interesting.

[yardwork]

26. Hog waste lagoons have been a huge problem in North Carolina. Very political.

It's a very touchy subject here.

[omega minimo]

30. links to ABC WorldNews reports on La Gloria, where Patient Zero lives and Smithfield pig factoryfarm

http://www.abcnews.go.com/International/WireStory?id=7445759&page=3

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeff-poor/2009/04/29/world-news-plays-eco-card-against-smithfield-foods-wake-swine-flu

[seemslikeadream]

20. The NAFTA Flu

yes a better name by far

[havocmom]

28. sorta

[TheWraith]

35. You know that there is ZERO EVIDENCE that that's TRUE, right?

No one has yet produced any evidence anywhere to support the idea that this came from a pig farm.

[omega minimo]

38. The proximity probably tips the scale toward .00001 or .000015

[Avalux]

39. Sanjay Gupta DID NOT indentify patient zero. He's such an ass. n/t

[Stellabella]

56. I noticed that too. He sure is quick to take credit for the work other

people do, isn't he?

[ColbertWatcher]

41. NAFTA Flu? I didn't know Rove had a DU account. n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

42. Anyone know what the link is for the google map of this gigantic farm? n/t

[NashVegas]

51. I Got Yer Link Right Here

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=granjas+carroll&sll=19.549437,-97.393799&sspn=3.540234,5.015259&ie=UTF8&ll=19.40184,-97.34436&spn=0.885981,1.253815&t=h&z=10

[ColbertWatcher]

54. Okay, which one is it!? n/t

[NashVegas]

55. All of Them

Granjas Carroll is the name of the Mexican subsidiary.

[ColbertWatcher]

57. That's what I was afraid of. That's a huge area. Thank you for the link. n/t

[KamaAina]

50. H1NAFTA1

:eyes: