Swine Flu | Grist

A conversation on coal

Roberts, take 1: Coal is in short supply, expensive, and cannot be made clean 0
Posted 8 Dec 2009 3:16 PM This is the second entry in a series of six email exchanges between two climate-change experts on the future use of coal. David Roberts argues that the key question is not "how can we best reduce carbon dioxide emissions?" Rather, we need to confront a more fundamental question of human needs vs. desires. If the earth is to sustain us all, prioritizing resources is vital. Rather than rely on coal (costly, less abundant than believed, and dirty to produce -- even in so-called "clean" processes), Roberts advocates investing in more sustainable sources of energy.
Meat Wagon

Uh-oh: Tamiflu-resistant swine flu rears up in the U.S., U.K. 1
Posted 20 Nov 2009 5:19 PM Ever since evolution of the swine flu virus accelerated in 1998, virologists and veterinary-science have warned that factory hog farms create the ideal conditions for generating novel viruses.
Meat wagon

Why the USDA has no business overseeing conditions on factory farms, and more 17
Posted 16 Nov 2009 10:19 AM Why isn't the federal government seriously investigating the possible CAFO-swine flu link? I've posed that question several times recently, most recently here. Now let me venture an answer.
Denialism and H1N1

Time for the mainstream media to face the factory farm-swine flu link 23
Posted 10 Nov 2009 9:05 PM The famed novelist Jonathan Safran Foer has been speaking bluntly about swine flu and CAFOs. Will the mainstream media now follow suit?
Reckless behavior

For swine flu, forget origins and start thinking about practices 6
Posted 5 Nov 2009 4:07 PM 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 29 Oct 2009 7:20 AM 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.
Choice nuggets

From Whole (junk) Foods to Julia/Julie hype, tasty morsels from around the Web 2
Posted 6 Aug 2009 3:58 PM
Grist's food editor serves up a brief rundown of interesting food/agriculture journalism from around the web.
North Carolina governor asked to address hog industry’s health impacts 0
Posted 15 Jul 2009 7:14 AM
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.
Do dirty coal plants make us more vulnerable to swine flu? 3
Posted 10 Jun 2009 8:53 AM
Scientists have discovered that exposure to a common pollutant may make people more likely to experience severe symptoms from swine flu -- and it's a pollutant emitted in large quantities by coal-burning power plants and other industrial facilities.
Flu do they think they are?

Europeans demand investigation of the CAFO/swine flu link 1
Posted 3 Jun 2009 1:21 PM
Remember swine flu? It's still spreading--and Europeans, at least, want the World Health Organization to seriously investigate links to factory hog farms.
Flu farce

Biotech industry group alights on La Gloria to test backyard pigs 0
Posted 22 May 2009 8:00 AM
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 11 May 2009 7:59 AM
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 8 May 2009 2:14 PM
You can catch swine flu from raw pork after all -- and no one really knows if any U.S. pigs are infected.
The genius of self-regulation

Smithfield: don’t worry, we’re testing our Mexican hogs for swine flu 3
Posted 6 May 2009 10:57 AM
So who's testing Smithfield's hogs in Mexico, just to make sure they aren't carrying swine flu? Why, Smithfield is.
Yes, it's the CAFOs

Now is not the time for timidity 14
Posted 1 May 2009 12:30 PM
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.
Premature Pontification

Jumping to conclusions in health matters may have adverse side effects 15
Posted 30 Apr 2009 6:32 PM
Without any evidence that the swine flu virus that emerged in Mexico has been present in nearby large-scale pig-raising operations, we have nothing to support the hypothesis that the current outbreak started there.
Home groan

CDC: swine flu strain has genetic roots in U.S.A. 1
Posted 30 Apr 2009 4:39 PM
The CDC's chief virus scientist confirms that the swine flu that broke out in Mexico evolved from U.S. hog farms in the 1990s.
Big Pork speaks

Smithfield is listening! 0
Posted 30 Apr 2009 3:44 PM
Smithfield CEO Larry Pope has evidently been checking out the blogs.
Not ready for swine-time players

‘New Scientist’: Swine flu stems from virus that evolved in U.S. 5
Posted 30 Apr 2009 2:03 PM
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.
Quote of the day

Obama: what swine flu? 2
Posted 30 Apr 2009 7:27 AM
Obama avoids saying "swine flu" -- evidently in deference to U.S. pork producers.