Édgar Hernández can rattle off the fierce flu symptoms he suffered a few weeks back, like a boy far beyond his five years: His head was hot. He coughed until his belly and his throat were sore. He did not want to eat, which was strange for him, someone who gobbles up everything he can.
“I was very bad,” he said Tuesday, with his worried parents looking on. “I feel good now,” he said later, flashing a smile.
The government has identified Édgar as the first person in Mexico to have become infected with a virulent strain of swine flu, a notoriety that could raise questions about how Mexican officials reacted — or failed to react — to the early stages of what might become a global epidemic.
Édgar was one of hundreds of people in La Gloria who came down with flulike symptoms in an outbreak that federal officials say began March 9. Local residents accuse public health officials of discounting the outbreak at the time, reassuring them that it was nothing grave…
In La Gloria, a town that has a major pig farming industry, two children died of the flu in March and early April, though the authorities said they had yet to determine whether it was the same strain that infected Édgar and spread widely to other locales. That and other questions have left residents here unnerved and confused.
 |
Here is a special report on pig farming in La Gloria. It ain’t some local truck farmer cranking out a couple hundred porkers every year. It’s a factory farm owned by Joseph Luter III, the Pig Baron of the world, the man who owns Smithfield – a corporation that has been busted in the United States and Europe for corrupting environments where he builds his pig warehouses. |
Each knock on the door brings a surprise to the Hernándezes: fumigators who sprayed her home but did not tell her for what; scientists who asked to take a swab of Édgar’s throat; even the governor of Veracruz, who arrived by helicopter on Monday with an entourage in tow and left Édgar with a soccer ball and a baseball cap.
On Monday, the local physician who treated Mrs. Hernández told her that her son had influenza, but that it was not the swine flu virus, she said. But a few hours before, Gov. Fidel Herrera Beltrán walked right into her home to check on Édgar. He had said publicly over the weekend that Édgar had tested positive for swine flu, and Health Secretary José Ángel Córdova had confirmed on Monday that a boy from La Gloria, whom he refused to identify, had tested positive and then recovered.
“Shouldn’t they tell the mother first?” Mrs. Hernández asked as her younger son, Jonathan, 3, let out a cough of his own…
Smithfield’s PR pimps are cranking out all the predictable excuses. The fact remains that his pork factories degrade the environment, produce conditions where diseases like swine flu start – and spread.
If you stop eating pigs, Luter would be left with just the muck.
Oh Gawd, are we going to start blaming fat cats again for viruses that have nothing to do with pigs, ignoring how corporations have fed the masses thus prolonging life.
REF: statement on 4/28/09 by Tom Vilsack, USD Agriculture Secretary, mentions that no swine are infected.
REF: Janet Napolitano states there is no swine flu, it’s N1H1 has nothing to do with swine.
#4 Miss Communication,
As usual, you are wrong, it’s related to pig feces, not pigs themselves..
You just can’t get anything right can you
and typing REF before a sentence you made up does not make it a fact…IDIOT
The good news is that the author of this blog entry was able to escape Luter’s farm unharmed.
Oh why oh why doesn’t Suterman ever stop the evil Luter once and for all?
Ok, a little more seriously: don’t overlook the first point of the article: a 5-year-old boy got swine flu – and didn’t die.
Everyone is freaking out – but for most, swine flu is survivable – it’s just a worse version of regular flu.
BTW, 36,000 people die (in the U.S.) each year, from complications due to regular influenza.
And the Spanish Flu – which the media is hyping like crazy – something like 70% of the population at the time, did NOT get infect at all. And of the 30% that did get infected, 2.5% died. And while that is a very large number of people, it’s not Omega-man time yet.
Imagine that? A third world country with Socialized medicine doesn’t take health care seriously? How could that happen?
I bet all you Obamatards are just dying(black humor intended) to get your free Obamacare! Soon you can go to the DMV and get ignored by government clerks and doctors.
#10
The story will be spun by the sycophant Obama lovers in the US media that if it wasn’t for Mexico’s socialized health care system, more people would have died.
This does not make me feel better (figuratively) in Virginia, home of Smithfield. Though I think we only have one large pig farm, there’s some just south in the Piedmont in NC.
It’s not capitalism guys, it’s unrestricted corporate activity. As one teach in middle school taught me, corporations aren’t amoral, they have but one moral, making money. Economy of scale makes very large production very attractive since it lowers per unit costs and thus makes cheap production for the masses possible too. BUT it comes with many nasty costs, such as destroying smaller businesses, whether they be mom & pop store or farms. They also have environmental results we can’t yet deal with effectively – or corporations choose not to because… it costs them money. Take bird farming in DelMarVa. So much chicken waste is produced that the stuff just sits and pollutes the surrounding environment. Plus the old chicken farmers, which Perdue or Tyson formerly bought their chickens from now are, in effect, tenant farmers who purchase hatchlings from said companies, purchase the food from these companies, and only own the feces and dead birds if they die before delivery back to the companies. This practice in and of itself should have been stopped decades ago. Farmers don’t earn as much now, the economy in the area suffers and is more monopolistic, the environment suffers and as swine flu points out, is a big risk for as a disease vector for livestock to/from humans.
In short, the economies of scale are outweighed by the disadvantages which are way too numerous and dangerous economically and to health. We need stricter regulations on large businesses (and less on smaller businesses). We need, as a nation and a world, to break up the overly large corporations who abuse economies of scale in this manner.
#12 – ” They also have environmental results we can’t yet deal with effectively – or corporations choose not to because… it costs them money.”
This is also known as negative externalities. Property owners surrounding these industries should be all over the corporations with lawsuits so large that running a clean operation will look like a bargain for the corporation. There also needs to changes made to the political system so the corporations aren’t able to buy politicians to allow them to use the law to push those externalities on government, otherwise known as corporate welfare. Say ‘NO” to corporate welfare queens.
“Farmers don’t earn as much now, the economy in the area suffers and is more monopolistic..”
Technology has brought major changes to farming and animal husbandry. We can get far more from a given plot of land than ever before. We also get more food distributed more efficiently. The bottom line is we don’t need as many farmers as weed used to. Not just because of consolidation, but because of these new efficiencies. The number one cause of waste and inefficiency in farming is … wait for it … federal farm programs. More corporate welfare. Close down the USDA and many of these problems disappear. Yes, some farmers will not be necessary and, if you are a 5th or 6th generation farmer who is no longer needed, that would be a serious gut check. But it is more a reason for said farmer to look at a new business than to pay them to waste valuable land and resources.
The IPPPPP (International Panel on Pig Poo and Pork Problems) has come to a peer reviewed indisputable conclusion that mankind is the main cause of pig poo and pork problems. If pig poo and production of pork for food, through human activity, isn’t reduced by 50%, by 2020 (a vision shared by many), millions will die.
Already, lakes of pig excrement are flowing like glaciers from pig farms. Satellite photos of just 2 years ago show that those glaciers of excrement didn’t exist before. And, the newest threat, swine flu from pig poo, is causing crap failures, temperature increases and chills to human homeostasis.
However, some areas of the population are enjoying an increased smell-free and flu-free life, as pig farms become huge and concentrated far from their own homes. They are welcoming the change and are have increased their consumption of pork to excessive levels. Some say that if these abusers of pork don’t get rid of their huge, energy wasting appetites and get around with a smaller more efficient diet, that the rest of the world won’t be able to reach the IPPPPP target.
Western society is too dependent on animals for food so a search for alternative means of fueling our bodies is necessary. Getting body fuel directly from the sun has failed as researchers were unable to overcome the side effects of severe burning and starvation. Attempts to harness wind energy for food resulted in extreme dizziness as well as many of the flu symptoms they were trying to avoid.
Therefor, the IPPPPP is recommending that we start to harness more food energy from plants and eventually wean ourselves off pork. In 30 – 50 years the IPPPPP is hoping that genetics will be advanced enough so that we can feed ourselves directly from the sun through photosynthesis. You could say it’s a new race to be green (cough).
Of course, there are those that don’t believe we are the cause. They say that pigs would make problems even if we didn’t farm them and that excrement glaciers and obesity are all naturally occurring phenomena independent of human activity. But, if you dig deeper you will find that most of these nay-sayers are in bed with pig barons like Joseph Luter.
End of silly.
lolz at JimR. Very nice.
This whole swine flu thing was started by chinese spammer agents posing as tourists in mexico as a way to push online sales of vitamins and cures.
#15–JimR==yes, well done – – – “but” I don’t know when I’ll get back to you first: when I’m ankle deed in salt water, or after watching world population plummet from the next pandemic.
Mindless mockery–clever, but still mindless.
I’m done with grocery store pork. If I want bacon, I’ll butcher my own hog. And that’s not likely to happen very often.
Duh… that’s not the point, Pedro. The point is I’m no longer supporting corporate pig farmers that dump tons of waste into a community. Nor do I care to eat the meat of animals that live under those conditions. How much do you want to bet that the condition of those hogs rivals that of the cattle that were so sick they had to be hosed and dragged into the slaughterhouse in CA?
bobbo, it’s you’re choice to buy into the fear or not. Sure, the oceans might rise and there might be a pandemic, or neither…but change fate or undo the messes we make? Sure if you can get the majority of 6.3 billion people to walk in step. There’s never been enough collective will to effect worldwide change and never will be because mankind is a species of untrustworthy and selfish excessiveness. Even the Amazon rain forests are still being clear cut… for 50 years now… as long as I can remember it has been “a threat”… yet the virgin forests are still disappearing by an area larger than Massachusetts every year.
You talk about mindlessness? HAH! …CO2? Influenza? They are just the flavour of the day. Here’s another one… there’s more cattle and sheep shit per mile2 beside the Great Lakes than anywhere else on the planet. That’s the largest source of fresh water we have and we concentrate our cow shit around it… and every time it rains the water is too polluted for days to swim in, let alone drink. AND it’s a convenient sewer for many factories as well.
I should write a parody on that as well. It’s so stupid it’s funny. You can read it while you wade around in the ocean on Park Avenue.
Anything we do will always have to reach critical mass before we say “oops”. Nature of the mindless beast bobbo. And you’re part of it as much as anyone. IMO, a real pandemic … say to wipe out 3/4 of the world population, would be a good thing for our ultimate survival as a species.
>> Alfred1
>> It didn’t take long to blame capitalism…
And it didn’t take long for you to make this a wedge issue.
Have you ever lived near one of these gigantic pig operations?
The stench is so overwhelming, even the most staunch Republican gags and vomits at the “smell of capitalism” (as you identify it.)
It’s all about the almighty buck. Who has it and who can get it. (Just not YOU!)
Family be damned. Economy be damned. Country be damned. And at any cost. Well done!
And now we have the beginnings of a plague and I couldn’t be happier. So be sure to not wash your hands and continue what you know are dirty habits. (Taco Bell knows what I’m talking about.)
Signed,
The Devil