Dear friends,


(http://cdn.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic?cl=226291034&v=3274)
Evidence is emerging that traces swine flu to giant factory pig farms that are
dirty, dangerous, and inhumane. Sign the petition to the World Health
Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization to investigate and
regulate
these threats to our health:
(http://cdn.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic?cl=226291034&v=3274)

No-one yet knows whether swine flu will become a global pandemic, but it
is becoming clear where it came from – most likely a giant pig factory farm
run by an American multinational corporation in Veracruz, Mexico.(1)

These factory farms are disgusting and dangerous, and they're rapidly
multiplying. Thousands of pigs are brutally crammed into dirty warehouses and
sprayed with a cocktail of drugs -- posing a health risk to more than just
our food -- they and their manure lagoons create the perfect conditions to
breed dangerous new viruses like swine flu. The World Health Organization
(WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) must investigate and
develop regulations for these farms to protect global health.

Big agrobusiness will try to obstruct and scuttle any attempts at reform,
so we need a massive outcry that health authorities can't ignore. Sign the
petition below for investigation and regulation of factory farms and tell
your friends and family and we will deliver it to the UN agencies. If we
reach 200,000 signatures we will deliver it to the WHO in Geneva with a herd
of cardboard pigs. For every 1000 petition signatures we will add a pig to
the herd:

_http://cdn.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic_
(http://cdn.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic?cl=226291034&v=3274)

Last week the flu was all that we talked about -- Mexico has been nearly
paralysed and across the world leaders halted air travel, banned pork imports
and initiated drastic controls to mitigate the spreading virus. As the
threat shows signs of subsiding the question becomes where it came from and
how we stop another outbreak.

Smithfield Corporation, the largest pig producer in the world whose farm
is being fingered as the source of the H1N1 outbreak, denies any connection
between their pigs and the flu and big agrobusiness worldwide pays huge
sums of money for research to argue that biosafety is ensured in industrial
hog production. But the WHO has been saying for years that 'a new pandemic is
inevitable'(2) and experts from the European Commission and the FAO have
cautioned that the rapid move from small holdings to industrial pig
production is in fact increasing the risk of development and transmission of
disease epidemics. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warn that
scientists still do not know the extent that infectious compounds produced in
factory farms affect human health.(3)

Studies abound of the horrific conditions endured by pigs in concentrated
large-scale operations, and the devastating economic impact on small farmer
communities of bloated large-scale operations.(4) Smithfield itself has
already been fined $12.6m and is currently under another federal
investigation in the US for toxic environmental damage from pig excrement
lakes.(5)

But even with all of this damaging evidence, a combination of increased
global meat consumption and a powerful industry motivated by profit at the
cost of human health, means that instead of being shut down - these sickening
factory farm operations are propagating around the world and we are
subsidising them (6). In the wake of this swine flu threat, let's hold
industrial
pig producers to account. Sign the petition for investigation and
regulation:

_http://cdn.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic_
(http://cdn.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic?cl=226291034&v=3274)

If we resolve this global health crisis boldly by reassessing our food
consumption and production, and urgently calling for an inquiry into the impact
of factory farms on human health, we could put in place tough farm
practice rules that will save the global population from future animal borne
lethal pandemics.

_http://cdn.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic_
(http://cdn.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic?cl=226291034&v=3274)

in hope,

Alice, Pascal, Graziela, Paul, Brett, Ben, Ricken, Iain, Paula, Luis, Raj,
Veronique, Milena, Margaret, Taren and the whole Avaaz team

(1) Biosurveillance report tracing the disease to the Smithfields farm:
_http://biosurveillance.typepad.com/biosurveillance/2009/04/swine-flu-in-mexico
-timeline-of-events.html_
(http://biosurveillance.typepad.com/biosurveillance/2009/04/swine-flu-in-mexico-\
timeline-of-events.html)
Reports on the link between the Mexican factory farm and the flu:
_http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/fo
r-la-gloria-the-stench-of-blame-is-from-pig-factories-1675809.html_
(http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/for-la\
-glo
ria-the-stench-of-blame-is-from-pig-factories-1675809.html)

_http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-fg-mexico-flu28-2009apr28,0,17017
82.story_
(http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-fg-mexico-flu28-2009apr28,0,1701782.s\
tory)

_http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=can-swine-flu-be-b
lamed-on-industri-09-05-01_
(http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=can-swine-flu-be-blame\
d-on-industri-09-05-01)

_http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227063.800-swine-flu-the-predictabl
e-pandemic.html?full=true_
(http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227063.800-swine-flu-the-predictable-pa\
ndemic.html?full=true)

_http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/swine-flu-outbreak----nat_b_19140
8.html_
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/swine-flu-outbreak----nat_b_191408.ht\
ml)

(2) WHO pandemic information
_http://www.euro.who.int/influenza/20080618_19_
(http://www.euro.who.int/influenza/20080618_19)

(3) FAO, EC and CDC reports on the risks of industrial farming on public
health
_FAO_
(mip://0423e448/www.fao.org/ag/AGAinfo/projects/en/pplpi/docarc/rep-hpai_industr\
ialisationrisks.pdf) and _CIWF_
(http://avaazimages.s3.amazonaws.com/Intensive%20pig%20farming%20is%20a%20breedi\
ng%20ground%20for%20disease.
pdf) and _http://www.cdc.gov/cafos/about.htm_
(http://www.cdc.gov/cafos/about.htm)

(4) CIWF and PETA video reports of the disgusting conditions for animals
in factory farms and the disease ridden manure swamps:
_CIWF_ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZQiWf-KEgQ) and _PETA_
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIjanhKqVC4)

(5) Reports on Smithfield's animal welfare and environmental damage
_http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/fo
r-la-gloria-the-stench-of-blame-is-from-pig-factories-1675809.html_
(http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/for-la\
-glo
ria-the-stench-of-blame-is-from-pig-factories-1675809.html)

_http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/press/releases/new-report-highlights-the-t
rouble-with-smithfield-article03132008_
(http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/press/releases/new-report-highlights-the-troub\
le-with-smithfield-article031320
08)

_http://avaazimages.s3.amazonaws.com/SmithfieldJan08.pdf_
(http://avaazimages.s3.amazonaws.com/SmithfieldJan08.pdf)

(6) Reports on UK tax payers subsidising factory farms
_http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/farming/5225298/Taxpayers-forking-\
out-700-million-f
or-factory-farming-in-England.html_
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/farming/5225298/Taxpayers-forking-\
out-700-million-for-factory-farming-
in-England.html)

---------

(https://secure.avaaz.org/en/footer_donations/index.php?d_cl=&v=)



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