Swine+Flu

** The Truth About Swine Flu **
No-one yet knows whether **swine flu** will become a global pandemic, but it is becoming clear **where it came from – most likely a giant pig factory farm  ** run by an American multinational corporation in Veracruz, Mexico.(1)

These **factory farms** **are disgusting and dangerous**, and they're rapidly multiplying. Thousands of pigs are brutally crammed into dirty warehouses and sprayed with a cocktail of drugs -- posing a health risk to more than just our food -- they and their manure lagoons create the perfect conditions to breed dangerous new viruses like swine flu. **Smithfield Corporation, the largest pig producer in the world whose farm is being fingered as the source of the H1N1 outbreak**, denies any connection between their pigs and the flu and big agrobusiness worldwide pays huge sums of money for research to argue that biosafety is ensured in industrial hog production. But the WHO has been saying for years that 'a new pandemic  is inevitable'(2) and experts from the European Commission and the FAO have cautioned that **the rapid move from small holdings to industrial pig production is in fact increasing the risk of development and transmission of disease epidemics.** The US  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  warn that scientists still do not know the extent that infectious compounds produced in factory farms affect human health.(3)


 * Studies abound of the horrific conditions endured by pigs in concentrated large-scale operations**, and the devastating economic impact on small farmer communities of bloated large-scale operations.(4) **Smithfield itself has already been fined $12.6m and is currently under another federal investigation** in the US for toxic environmental damage from pig excrement lakes.(5)

But even with all of this damaging evidence, a combination of increased global meat consumption and a powerful industry motivated by profit at the cost of human health, means that instead of being shut down - **these sickening factory farm operations are propagating around the world and we are subsidising them** (6). We need to reassess out food consumption, food processing and regulations governing food processing, in the light of this global pandemic. (1) **Biosurveillance report tracing the disease to the Smithfields farm:** [] **Reports on the link between the Mexican factory farm  and the flu:** []

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(2) **WHO pandemic information** []

(3) **FAO, EC and CDC reports on the risks of industrial farming on public health** FAO and [|CIWF] and []

(4) **CIWF and PETA video reports of the disgusting conditions for animals in factory farms and the disease ridden manure swamps:** [|CIWF] and [|PETA]

(5) **Reports on Smithfield's animal welfare  and environmental damage** []

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(6) **Reports on UK tax payers subsidising factory farms** []