CAFO | Grist

Reckless behavior

For swine flu, forget origins and start thinking about practices 6
Posted 2 weeks, 2 days ago Amid a trickle of news and science about swine flu over the past week, I've been rethinking my position on the novel H1N1 virus that has now infected millions of Americans.
Hog-tied

Six months after the outbreak, who’s investigating the CAFO-swine flu link? 16
Posted 3 weeks, 2 days ago A half a year after the novel H1NI outbreak, federal authorities still aren't investigating possible links to hog CAFOs. Tom Philpott ponders why that might be.
Department of bad jokes

CAFOs: ‘Above the Law’ like Steven Seagal? 4
Posted 1 month ago What do CAFOs--that's concentrated-animal feedlot operations to you, punk--have to do with action-movie artiste Steven Seagal? That's for Tom Laskawy to know, and you to find out.
Politics Gone Hog Wild

Boss Hog’s attempted regulatory coup in North Carolina 1
Posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago
For the past two years, the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission has been crafting new rules to require water monitoring at factory hog farms, a significant source of pollution in the state. But last week, even with concerns growing over the environmental impacts of hog farms, the North Carolina Senate unanimously passed a bill that puts the rules process on hold until 2011 -- a display of the mighty political power Boss Hog holds in the state.
North Carolina governor asked to address hog industry’s health impacts 0
Posted 4 months, 1 week ago
Environmental advocates gathered at the North Carolina legislature yesterday for a press conference and prayer vigil asking the governor to create a task force to study and take action on health problems associated with industrial hog farms.
Flu do they think they are?

Europeans demand investigation of the CAFO/swine flu link 1
Posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Remember swine flu? It's still spreading--and Europeans, at least, want the World Health Organization to seriously investigate links to factory hog farms.
Hogging Our Drugs

Anti-CAFO ads running in DC Metro 1
Posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Flu farce

Biotech industry group alights on La Gloria to test backyard pigs 0
Posted 6 months ago
The good news is that bloggers and other hysterics aren't the only ones taking seriously La Gloria, Mexico, as the possible origin of the swine flu pandemic. The bad news is that the scientists aren't from the World Health Organization or some other neutral international group--rather, they're funded by the U.S. biotech industry.
Follow the herd

Another symptom of swine flu: instant amnesia 23
Posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago
Now that the swine flu that broke out last month is proving not so virulent, it has largely been shuffled off of the front page. But the conditions that likely caused it -- a global web of vast, lightly regulated factory animal farms -- remains in place. And we might not be as lucky next time.
Hog wild

Uncomfortable facts about the swine flu outbreak 8
Posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago
You can catch swine flu from raw pork after all -- and no one really knows if any U.S. pigs are infected.
Change we can devour

Vilsack’s USDA shakes things up 9
Posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago
USDA honcho Tom Vilsack has generated plenty of criticism for his love of ethanol and GMOs. But over the past week, he's made some truly reform-minded decisions.
Swine flew

A terrific NYT piece on Smithfield and the globalization of pork 3
Posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago
On Wednesday, The New York Times ran a terrific long piece on how Smithfield Foods has rapidly transformed hog production in Eastern Europe. It's all there: the open cesspools, the farmers knocked off the land by the hundreds of thousands, the high-level cronyism, and more.
The genius of self-regulation

Smithfield: don’t worry, we’re testing our Mexican hogs for swine flu 3
Posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago
So who's testing Smithfield's hogs in Mexico, just to make sure they aren't carrying swine flu? Why, Smithfield is.
Think Before You Eat, Agriculture and the Environment 0
Posted 6 months, 3 weeks ago
Yes, it's the CAFOs

Now is not the time for timidity 14
Posted 6 months, 3 weeks ago
I agree with the calls for some amount of caution in the search for a smoking gun in the swine flu pandemic. There's always the danger of over-reaching and turning your target into an object of sympathy. But really, the science IS behind us on this one.
Swine time

CDC chief confirms U.S. origin of flu strain 0
Posted 6 months, 3 weeks ago
Not ready for swine-time players

‘New Scientist’: Swine flu stems from virus that evolved in U.S. 5
Posted 6 months, 3 weeks ago
In a pair of articles in New Scientist, Debora MacKenzie links the swine flu virus now spreading across the globe to large-scale pork-raising operations in the United States.
Taking Issue

Don’t jump to conclusions on swine flu and pork production 6
Posted 6 months, 3 weeks ago
Until the medical evidence is in, we just don't know if the swine flu that emerged in Mexico is linked with industrial pork production.
The nasty bits

Symptom: swine flu. Diagnosis: industrial agriculture? 27
Posted 6 months, 3 weeks ago
Several days after news broke of a possible link between hog Mexico-based CAFOs and the rapid spread of a novel swine flu strain, what have we learned?
When pigs flu

Swine-flu outbreak could be linked to Smithfield factory farms 62
Posted 7 months ago
The deadly swine-flu outbreak now spreading into the U.S. could be linked to large-scale hog operations in Mexico run by industrial-meat giant Smithfield Foods, according to Mexican news reports.