Factory Farms and Swine Flu — Is There a Connection?

You don’t have to be a PETA fanatic to think that factory farming is a horrible practice. Pigs are smarter than cats and dogs. It should be unthinkable to have them crammed together into tiny pens to wallow in their own shit.

And now there’s a possibility that factory farm pollution is the cause of the current swine flu epidemic. There’s no proof, but there’s a lot of smoke out there, whether there’s any fire or not. Google “factory farms swine flu” and see how many links come up. I first read about this on MSNBC.com, but when I went back to the same link the next day, the story had disappeared.

Smithfield Foods — the world’s largest hog producer — has a huge factory farm in Perote, Vera Cruz, Mexico. This operation raises and “processes” (don’t even go there) 950,000 hogs per year. And the town of Perote is where the swine flu outbreak originated. Coincidence?

Smithfield Foods is an American company. Their factory farm operation in Perote, Mexico is called Granjas Carroll. Now if this factory farm turns out to be the swine flu culprit (notice I said IF) — there’s a certain irony. When this swine flu epidemic first became public, rightwing bloggers and pundits went ballistic, calling Mexicans every racial slur you’ve ever heard (and probably a few new ones). Swine flu was all THEIR fault — those dirty feelthy stinking F#$%^&#!$&#s came into our country and infected us with their filth and disease!

So…Do these wingtards have anything they’d like to rephrase? I’m not providing links to any of these assholes; you know who I’m talking about.

For more information about Smithfield Foods, check this out.

cross-posted at Bring It On!