Swine flu the real deal?

By Sarah 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 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 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.
Most of the 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 certainly isn't helping the situation.
In addition to being sad, this is infuriating. The company that owns 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 agriculture 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).