There was an article in the Washington Post this morning about pigs and the swine flu.  Scientists are studying pigs and pig farms to better understand flu strains, and how swine and human flu strains can combine in the animals and lead to "reassortment"  - creating new and possibly more dangerous viruses. 

So I'm relaxing, reading the paper, drinking coffee, just like I do every Sunday morning, when I stumble across this:

"CAFOs such as Schott's are inherently safer than backyard pig farms, where the animals mingle with people and birds fly overhead."

The CAFO in question is profiled in the article as "one of the most pathogen-free homes a pig could have."  Now I'm annoyed, because CAFOs are a big part of what's wrong with our food supply, and what's so wrong with birds flying overhead?  Oh - they might have avian flu.  And what's so wrong with people mingling with animals - that we might actually know where our dinner comes from? 

The article goes on: "But if multiple flu viruses were to get into a CAFO, the crowding of the animals would make widespread transmission, and the chance of reassortment, likely. Mathematical modeling suggests CAFOs can function as "amplifiers" of pandemic strains."

Now I'm really irritated.  So CAFOs are the greatest place for pigs until they become a breeding ground for a virulent new strain of the flu?  That sounds responsible. 

Let's get back to reality - animals are supposed to live outside, sometimes they get sick, and most of the time, if they're healthy, they get better - just like humans!  Packing them into a "sterile" environment, and inocluating to prevent infection, does not create a healthier animal.  It creates animals that can't survive outside of their carefully controlled "biosecure" building.  Animal science has "'eliminated or minimized so many diseases that used to be standard and common in the swine industry," said Mike Male, 57, a veterinarian who provides the medical care to Schott's animals. Influenza, however, isn't one of them." ...and now we have a pandemic.

I don't blame the pigs, and I'm not afraid to eat pork, and most of my family had the swine flu this week and lived to tell the tale.  But I  know where my pork comes from - Rohrer's Meats.  You can find Danny Rohrer at the West Frederick Farmer's Market on Saturdays.  

If you don't know where your dinner comes from, you should find out.  And if you don't like the idea of eating the products of an "animal factory," you should visit the farmer's market, or your local butcher. 

So, sorry about the rant, but I've about had it with the swine flu media frenzy anyway, and this was the last straw.

Book Review: "In Defense of Food"

I just finished reading Michael Pollan's In Defense of of Food: An Eater's Manifesto.  It makes complete sense - "Eat food.  Not too much.  Mostly plants". 

Our culture of food has veered sharply away from home and family based traditions, to a need for speed and convenience - and therefore ignorance.  Increasingly, the food we eat is the product of a vast industrial, commercial system - even unprocessed foods like fruits and vegetables are shipped long distances from giant farms, where they may have been grown using genetically modified seeds, and were surely doused with chemical pesticides and herbicides. 

Our reliance on packaged foods and agriculture on a massive scale has led to increased rates of obesity and related diseases, foodborne illness outbreaks that affect the entire country, and widespread plant diseases, like the recent tomato blight in the Northeast. 

As a society, we no longer learn about food from our family.  The traditions of planting, harvesting, cooking, and preserving, although they are experiencing a renaissance, have for too long been ignored.  Now, our food culture consists of a trip to the frozen foods aisle, and a date with the microwave.  If we learn about food, we hear about vitamins and nutrients, carbs and fats, protiens and antioxidants. 

But we can't break broccoli down into its various vitamins and nutrients, reassemble it as a pill, and expect our bodies to think its broccoli.  Different cultures of food around the world evolved and adapted to provide their populations with a healthy, complete diet.  We need to rediscover those traditions, eat whole foods, know where they came from, and teach our children how to put together a balanced diet.