Swine flu: don't panic yet

Swine flu is all over the news today, so if you haven't heard of it, you probably have a life that doesn't involve informed citizenship, television, or the flu itself. (I personally found out through boredom, to be entirely honest.)

Who's being affected? According to CNN, 1 person in Spain, 2 people in Scotland, 6 Canadians, 26 Mexicans, and 40 Americans are infected. But wait, there's more! Turns out in Mexico, there have been 149 deaths -- not confirmed, but thought to be related to the flu -- and almost 2,000 people have been hospitalized. Alarmingly, it's taking the highest toll on folks in their 20's and 30's, the sort of young stock that you don't expect to be waylaid by disease. CNN's chief medical correspondent, Sanjay Gupta, says that it's the robust immune system of these youngsters that overreacts and does the damage.

Well, you think to yourself, this is a surprise. CNN, sweetheart, tell me when and where the heck this all started, and why is it happening?

CNN is eerily silent on the topic. It calls Mexico "the apparent epicenter of the swine flu outbreak" in its interview with Gupta, but that's as far as it goes. In another article, they claim that "researchers do not yet know" what's behind the virus, suffice to say that it came from pigs. But don't worry, says CNN. It's just "a new variation of an H1N1 virus," and "outbreaks [of normal H1N1] in pigs occur year-round."

CNN, why is all this flu business so troubling? The answer: "Scientists are concerned whenever a new virus is able to jump from an animal to a person -- and then spread from person to person. When the flu spreads person to person, it can continue to mutate, making it harder to treat or fight off."

Luckily, we don't really need waste time and money researching the cause; we know, we've known for years that this could happen. Genetic mutations sometimes happen naturally, sure, but think about it. Avian flu. SARS. Etcetera. All's I'm sayin' is that we brought it on ourselves in the form of a viral and bacterial breeding ground called, affectionately, a CAFO.

The acronym stands for "Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation," and if you've never heard of that, then you've lived a life absent of PETA and other knowledge about where food comes from. Don't worry, you're not in the minority. If people knew where their meat was coming from, the CAFO-mongers would feel the pinch, and I doubt they'd abide that -- not when they have the funds to keep you blissfully ignorant.

Not that I'm accusing anyone of anything. Totally hypothetical.

Anywho. So, if you've ever run into someone from PETA, they probably tried to cram a bunch of information about CAFOs into you as you politely nodded while thinking about how this was going to make you late to that 3 o'clock. And I can't really blame either of you. I have to agree that it's inhumane -- in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Steven Kingsolver says something like "imagine a thousand chickens in your bathroom." I would reply to Mr. Kingsolver, imagine the smell of a thousand chickens in your bathroom. Also, you're not doing the chickens any favors by imagining that it smells any better to them.

Life sucks for these animals, but because it sucks for them, it sucks for you, too. First of all, the meat is not as healthy for you. Animals like chickens and cows (and probably pigs, though I haven't done my research on them) are fed mostly corn, which they're not designed to eat in such huge quantities. It affects the flavor, but it also means that the meat has more fat in it. But, Mom, whines the voice of the CAFO-mongers, it makes them big and fat and it does it real fast!

So fast, in fact, that if you didn't take the cows to slaughter, they'd die of being too fat. But I digress.

Why am I alleging that the swine flu came from a CAFO? Because, my dear, don't you think that having thousands of animals crammed in together would cause some deficiencies in the animals' health? What do you think those CAFO people do about that? They just allow such-and-such percent of their investment to die off? Goodness gracious, no. Antibiotics, of course! Antibiotics in the food! It can't fail.

Only, it does. You know why they always tell you to take all your antibiotics when you're sick? If you didn't, you might allow bacteria to figure out how to get around the medicine. Now, imagine thousands of people, living in very tight quarters with very compromised immune systems, living in their own poop, giving lots and lots of bacteria lots and lots of chances to figure out ways around antibiotics. Whaddaya got? Crazy super-disease that don't take "no" for an answer.

As a point of clarification, viruses don't respond to antibiotics. So the antibiotic mutation explanation doesn't apply to them, but it's probably not good policy to create a festering cesspool for their breeding pleasure.

Okay. I'm done being scary, I promise. (At least for now.) Don't have a cow, though; turns out you can kill the swine flu at 160 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. It's really going to be okay, this time. If avian flu didn't do it, SARS didn't do it, West Nile didn't do it, I think we'll be okay as a species. But what about next time? What about the time when a mutant virus figures out a way around high temperatures? What then?

For starters, please, I am begging you, stop investing in strange meats. Even just limiting your meat consumption would help. If you want to go all the way, it doesn't mean you have to avoid eating anything that casts a shadow. Just buy from the farmer's market -- they do meat! It'll be more expensive, yeah, but that's what a good, healthy, eco-friendly side of meat is worth. It's worth knowing where your food comes from. And it's worth remembering that people are dying, right now, because of patronage to CAFOs -- even humble personal investments like yours.

Just ask yourself this: can you really live with the guilt of contributing to a global pandemic? 'Cause I can't.

For more information, please consider the following links:


Great article about CAFOs and swine flu by David Kirby at the Huffington Post.

A timeline of events from Biosurveillance:

Paula Crossfield at Civileats and KristenM at Foodrenegade talk about the link between the swine flu outbreak and Smithfield CAFO, something you won't find on CNN. At least not yet.