d pigs to other pigs in an attempt to induce “immunity” in survivors.
To combat PEDv the government gave $11.1 million of our tax dollars to private farmers who were “producers of infected herds.”
Here’s a cheaper idea: How about giving the animals fresh air, space to move and no drugs?
From 2014 through mid-2015, 48 million chickens and turkeys were killed in the U.S. to prevent the spread of bird flu, and to protect farmer profits. Yet despite the mass murder spree, the disease resurfaced in 2017.
It’s easy to see why. To prevent the spread of bird flu, in many cases, healthy, floor-reared turkeys and broiler chickens were herded into enclosed areas where they were administered propylene glycol foam to suffocate them.
In other cases, birds were killed by “ventilation shutdown”––the term used when barn temperatures are raised to at least 104°F for a minimum of three hours to kill the entire flock. As reported by Fortune, “round-the-clock incinerators and crews in hazmat suits” were commonly required for bird depopulation in 2015.
When farm animal disease pandemics hit in the U.S., Big Meat likes to control the mainstream media’s narrative by focusing the story on “the price of bacon,” trade wars or farmer profits. With the ASF virus, mainstream media is naively portraying it as a disease of other countries.
For example, The New York Times attributes China’s ASF to the country’s “emphasis on government-driven, top-down solutions to major problems, sometimes at the expense of the practical.” This analysis conveniently ignores the U.S.’s recent PEDv and bird flu epidemics.
The Times also indicts China’s “small farms, often packed together in crowded agricultural areas,” for the pandemic—again conveniently ignoring the U.S.’s own crowded factory farms, which are certainly at risk.
The real story of ASF is this: Factory farm animal prisons, with their pesticides, antibiotics and intense confinement, weaken the immune systems of animals, making them highly susceptible to pandemics. The model also causes egregious harm to workers, the environment and human consumers.
The African swine fever is just the latest example.
This post first appeared at The Organic Consumers Association here.
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