Stop Factory Pig Farms and disease spread

[Guest guest]

Dear friends,

 

 

(http://cdn.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic?cl=226291034 & v=3274)

Evidence is emerging that traces swine flu to giant factory pig farms that are

dirty, dangerous, and inhumane. Sign the petition to the World Health

Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization to investigate and

regulate

these threats to our health:

(http://cdn.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic?cl=226291034 & v=3274)

 

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. The World Health Organization

(WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) must investigate and

develop regulations for these farms to protect global health.

 

Big agrobusiness will try to obstruct and scuttle any attempts at reform,

so we need a massive outcry that health authorities can't ignore. Sign the

petition below for investigation and regulation of factory farms and tell

your friends and family and we will deliver it to the UN agencies. If we

reach 200,000 signatures we will deliver it to the WHO in Geneva with a herd

of cardboard pigs. For every 1000 petition signatures we will add a pig to

the herd:

 

_http://cdn.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic_

(http://cdn.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic?cl=226291034 & v=3274)

 

Last week the flu was all that we talked about -- Mexico has been nearly

paralysed and across the world leaders halted air travel, banned pork imports

and initiated drastic controls to mitigate the spreading virus. As the

threat shows signs of subsiding the question becomes where it came from and

how we stop another outbreak.

 

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). In the wake of this swine flu threat, let's hold

industrial

pig producers to account. Sign the petition for investigation and

regulation:

 

_http://cdn.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic_

(http://cdn.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic?cl=226291034 & v=3274)

 

If we resolve this global health crisis boldly by reassessing our food

consumption and production, and urgently calling for an inquiry into the impact

of factory farms on human health, we could put in place tough farm

practice rules that will save the global population from future animal borne

lethal pandemics.

 

_http://cdn.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic_

(http://cdn.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic?cl=226291034 & v=3274)

 

in hope,

 

Alice, Pascal, Graziela, Paul, Brett, Ben, Ricken, Iain, Paula, Luis, Raj,

Veronique, Milena, Margaret, Taren and the whole Avaaz team

 

(1) Biosurveillance report tracing the disease to the Smithfields farm:

_http://biosurveillance.typepad.com/biosurveillance/2009/04/swine-flu-in-mexico

-timeline-of-events.html_

(http://biosurveillance.typepad.com/biosurveillance/2009/04/swine-flu-in-mexico-\

timeline-of-events.html)

Reports on the link between the Mexican factory farm and the flu:

_http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/fo

r-la-gloria-the-stench-of-blame-is-from-pig-factories-1675809.html_

(http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/for-la\

-glo

ria-the-stench-of-blame-is-from-pig-factories-1675809.html)

 

_http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-fg-mexico-flu28-2009apr28,0,17017

82.story_

(http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-fg-mexico-flu28-2009apr28,0,1701782.s\

tory)

 

_http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=can-swine-flu-be-b

lamed-on-industri-09-05-01_

(http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=can-swine-flu-be-blame\

d-on-industri-09-05-01)

 

_http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227063.800-swine-flu-the-predictabl

e-pandemic.html?full=true_

(http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227063.800-swine-flu-the-predictable-pa\

ndemic.html?full=true)

 

_http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/swine-flu-outbreak----nat_b_19140

8.html_

(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/swine-flu-outbreak----nat_b_191408.ht\

ml)

 

(2) WHO pandemic information

_http://www.euro.who.int/influenza/20080618_19_

(http://www.euro.who.int/influenza/20080618_19)

 

(3) FAO, EC and CDC reports on the risks of industrial farming on public

health

_FAO_

(mip://0423e448/www.fao.org/ag/AGAinfo/projects/en/pplpi/docarc/rep-hpai_industr\

ialisationrisks.pdf) and _CIWF_

(http://avaazimages.s3.amazonaws.com/Intensive%20pig%20farming%20is%20a%20breedi\

ng%20ground%20for%20disease.

pdf) and _http://www.cdc.gov/cafos/about.htm_

(http://www.cdc.gov/cafos/about.htm)

 

(4) CIWF and PETA video reports of the disgusting conditions for animals

in factory farms and the disease ridden manure swamps:

_CIWF_ (

) and _PETA_

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIjanhKqVC4)

 

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

_http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/fo

r-la-gloria-the-stench-of-blame-is-from-pig-factories-1675809.html_

(http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/for-la\

-glo

ria-the-stench-of-blame-is-from-pig-factories-1675809.html)

 

_http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/press/releases/new-report-highlights-the-t

rouble-with-smithfield-article03132008_

(http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/press/releases/new-report-highlights-the-troub\

le-with-smithfield-article031320

08)

 

_http://avaazimages.s3.amazonaws.com/SmithfieldJan08.pdf_

(http://avaazimages.s3.amazonaws.com/SmithfieldJan08.pdf)

 

(6) Reports on UK tax payers subsidising factory farms

_http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/farming/5225298/Taxpayers-forking-\

out-700-million-f

or-factory-farming-in-England.html_

(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/farming/5225298/Taxpayers-forking-\

out-700-million-for-factory-farming-

in-England.html)

 

---------

 

(https://secure.avaaz.org/en/footer_donations/index.php?d_cl= & v=)

 

 

 

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