Swine flu is the only news story today. That might be your impression with just a cursory look at the top media organizations' headlines. Swine Flu fear is sweeping the globe, and dominating the talk in newsrooms through the country. But one blogger,
D. Stephen Heersink at Gay Species, wrote about swine flue, also known as MRSA, more than a month ago. He showed that 18,000 people die annually from MSRA infections, and
shared some thoughts on why that is:
The Union of Concerned Scientists has raised the concern of agribusiness' use of human antibiotics in
animals that we consume for food may have a deleterious consequence on
our overall health in order to produce more pigs and cows at the
expense of our health.
[...]
The U.S. government favored the practice of using human antibiotics to
profit the husbandry of pigs and cows. It may be time for CONSUMERS to
BOYCOTT pork and beef -- not only because our government's control is
out of control -- but our health is too valuable to leave auction on
the block of profits.
Organically raised pigs are not treated with human antibiotic hormones, but most factory farmed pigs are. If human antibiotic hormones are to blame for swine flu, how will this affect your pork buying habits? If this possible pandemic becomes a reality, will you boycott pork treated with antibiotics meant for humans? Does the swine flu news make you consider, even for a moment, going vegetarian? Even though the consumption of pork does not cause one to contract swine flu, the industry of factory farming pigs is to blame. Will this affect your pork buying habits?
[Photo by Andrew Stawarz]
UPDATE, 4/28: Commenters inform us that MSRA and swine flu are not the same. Eye on Blogs apologizes for the error.
