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Wed: Smithfield and the Flu?
posted at 2009-04-29 22:01 | Last modified 2009-04-29 22:59
CNN is reporting tonight that the child considered Swine Flu’s Patient Zero lives down the street from a huge pig farm that’s a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods, one of NC's major pork producers.
According to the AP, residents of La Gloria,where the farm is located, have been suffering from a similar illness for some time. In fact, the Times Online reports health workers had to go door-to-door with insecticide after an outbreak of a “powerful respiratory disease” in the same town earlier this year.
Smithfield Foods denies any connection between its farms and the virus, saying its Mexican joint ventures have tested negative. But the La Gloria operation manager tells the AP the Mexican government has not inspected his farm to confirm that. Wall Street may not be convinced, either. Smithfield’s share prices dropped three percent today on an analyst’s warning.
H/T to ISS’s Sue Sturgis, who puts it all together in an environmental justice framework over at Facing South.
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