"Pobre Mexico--tan lejos de Diós; tan circa á los Estados Unidos."
- Mexican saying
Poor Mexico--so far from God; so close to the United States.
From the latest edition of Mexico City's La Jornada (I've translated this for you):
Granjas Carrol, protected by authorities*
We
are mistaken to believe that authorities responsible for guaranteeing
public health and protecting the quality of our natural resources
(especially water) have acted to avoid a situation where Granjas
Carrol, one of the largest pork processors in the country [Mexico],
would negatively affect thousands of people as well as the surrounding
environment.
It has been three years since we reported here
about the population of Perote, Veracruz, and the hardships they suffer
owing to the protection that officials [to whom we] issued requests
give to said business. Granjas Carrol was established 15 years ago in
Perote because it was an ideal site for pork-processing: a good
climate, close proximity to the country's central market, the
availability of cheap manual labor, and the ease with which to bring in
the agricultural supplies required to process nearly a million pigs per
year and maintain 40,000 breeding animals.
Carrol is
distinguished for its high consumption of water and the resources that
allow the pigs to grow rapidly and to be "healthy". But the waste that
originates from this breeder is dangerous: pig excrement, chemical and
biological residues, wastewater leaching into in the water we use
ourselves. For [the violation of] contaminating [the water and
environment] with waste, the United States fined
the powerful enterprise Smithfield, majority owner of Carrol. Here, in
contrast, everything is allowed, as demonstrated in public reports,
last week, by correspondent Andrés Timoteo Morales. Furthermore, he
notes how local authorities persecute those who fight for the
environment and for health. And the federal authorities?
Another
matter that marches at the pace of a turtle: the cleaning-up of
beaches. According to the government, they have invested 2
thousand-million pesos into water treatment plants in the main
tourist-destination cities of the coast. The secretaries of Health and
Environment give priority to the water-quality monitoring--for critical
contamination--of some 21 beaches; these are in Jalisco, Campeche,
Veracruz, Chiapas and Guerrero. But there is much more going on,
according to the association El Poder del Consumador
[the Power of the Consumer]. For its part, Greenpeace states that
authorities do not inform the public in a timely way, or with proven
data, about the water quality issues at the beaches.
A
short summary, then; one that doesn't even require reading between the
lines: American-owned interests in Mexico--from pork processing giants
built alongside villages to water-treatment facilities serving the
fancy hotels in coastal cities--are largely unregulated by Mexican
officials.
This much is fairly well-known, I think--certainly it's well-known in agribusiness circles.
And
my own between-the-lines take, offered herein with a sad shrug of my
shoulders that will be well-understood by those who have even a passing
familiarity with how business is done, ah, elswhere: the article's headline itself, protected by authorities, which can also be read/translated as protegé of the authorities. *
-----
By
now you've all heard about the virulent H1N1 strain of influenza,
currently referred to as swine flu, and perhaps you saw Homeland
Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on television explaining to America
that declaring a state of emergency, as she was doing, was just a
precaution--a preparatory step, just in case--so that Federal money was made available. Just in case.
Consider this post a case presented, then.
At
this point, beyond America's borders, people are somewhere between
rightly worried and seriously panicked, and that's just the government
officials. The state legislature in Veracruz, widely thought to be the
outbreak's epicenter--certainly it is the largest "hot spot"--has already demanded that Granjas Carrol, the Mexican-based subsidiary of giant U.S. pork processor Smithfield Foods, come clean, so to speak:
The
state legislature of Veracruz has demanded that the Smithfield
subsidiary turn over all documents and environmental certifications on
its three massive waste lagoons, but so far, the company has only
supplied information on one of them, news reports said today.
As
part of normal (!) operations, Granjas Carrol dumps many tons of the
hogs' waste into what are essentially sewage lagoons, referred to as
lagunas de oxidación (oxidation ponds) and these constantly emit clouds
of waste droplets and flies; this in turn befouls the air and water of
adjacent La Gloria, the residents of which have long complained about
respiratory infections they feel are related to this "pollution of the
water and wind".
Then, in March, those respiratory infections began killing residents. Mexican authorities are quietly exhuming the bodies of two La Gloria children believed to have died of this new strain of flu, and officials have declared a cordon sanitario--literally,
a sanitary cord; in this case, a public health barricade or
quarantine--be placed around the Granjas Carrol and other pork and
poultry CAFO's (Confined Animal Feeding Operation) in the area, and
around bus terminals and airports.
When reading about and reporting on swine flu--a virus--it's important to bear a couple of things in mind.
First, this swine flu virus contains elements of avian, human, and swine influenza. According to the CDC's partner website PandemicFlu.gov, avian (bird) flu is transmitted thus (emphasis mine):
Infected
birds shed influenza virus in their saliva, nasal secretions, and
feces. Susceptible birds become infected when they have contact with
contaminated excretions or with surfaces that are contaminated with
excretions or secretions. Wild bird
avian influenza viruses of low pathogenicity mix with avian viruses in
domesticated birds and become highly pathogenic in poultry.
Domestic poultry may become infected with avian influenza virus through
direct contact with infected waterfowl or other infected poultry or
through contact with surfaces (such as dirt or cages) or materials
(such as feces or feed) that have been contaminated with droppings that
harbor the low-pathogenicity virus.
In other words, low pathogenic avian influenza, which naturally occurs in wild birds, can spread to domestic birds; the relatively mildly-pathogenic flu can become "highly pathogenic" when domestic poultry come in contact with infected birds--or with feed or feces that has been contaminated by the droppings of wild birds. And from there, other animals can contract the virus. For example, during the last major flu outbreak, the H5N1 avian flu virus also infected cats in Europe.
Second,
the aforementioned CAFO--Granjas Carrol, subsidiary of Smithfield
Foods--is essentially an enormous, concentrated hog farm, and while hog
farms are not what anyone would call the cleanest places in the world,
one would expect the massive doses of antibiotics CAFO's routinely
administer to confined livestock would keep infections at bay, right?
In a word, NO.
Influenza is a virus, not a bacteria, and antibiotics treat, and prevent the spread of, bacterial
infections--this is likely why the drugged-up pigs didn't get sick all
that time, meanwhile the unprotected residents of nearby La Gloria
constantly complained of respiratory infections, most likely
bacterial--at first. At some point in the recent past, however, a new
mutation of the flu virus, the triple-whammy H1N1 bird-pig-human combo
bug, found its way to the infamous clouds of pig waste and flies
drifting across--and spreading outward from--the "oxidation ponds"
about which Granjas Carrol/Smithfield released only partial
information, and about which they are still remaining (mostly) quiet.
Even as people have begun dying of those infections in what are, quite
frankly, alarming numbers.
Finally, a question: what of the connection between avian flu and this new swine flu, with its human, avian, and swine DNA--is there one?
He
[Mexico's Chairman of the Committee on the Environment, Marco Antonio
Núñez López] was referring to another CAFO, this one containing
poultry, called Granjas de Bachoco, located near the state capital of
Xalapa. He said there was an epidemic
of avian flu among the chickens being raised there, but that this was
being kept quiet so as not to interfere with exports.
Influenza-infected chickens raise the risk of cross-infection to pigs
in the same area, scientists say.
I'll be
keeping a close eye on developments in this story, both in the US and
Mexican media, as I've already noticed some interesting and significant
differences in what--and how much--they're saying south of the border
versus here in the land of Los Norteños.
Further reading:
The article in Grist, by Tom Philpott, that connects Smithfield to the Swine Flu outbreak
The World Health Organization's Swine Flu information center
The Center for Disease Control's Swine Flu information center
Also at litbrit.
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