First aired on Swiss TV in December 2009, H1N1: Why did it strike the Mexicans first? is a documentary that cuts straight to heart of the huge costs involved in producing cheap meat.
The programme focuses on explaining why La Gloria, a Mexican village with 3000 inhabitants, was the birthplace to the global pandemic of H1N1 swine flu and looks at the situation there now. The exact origins, as is well known, are traceable to intensive pig farming operations which are a prominent feature of the area (one is about five miles from La Gloria) and are mostly subsidiaries of Smithfield Foods.
Pig farms such as these, the film reveals, house 90,000-100,000 pigs and in an area roughly the size of Switzerland the number of pigs reaches a staggering 5 to 6 million! It was in these industrial units where swine flu originated and it’s no coincidence that the virus has been traced back to pig farms in North Carolina which also happen to be owned by Smithfield. The impacts of these type of farming operations are clear for all to see. Footage shows piles of dead pigs which are dumped in pits and left to rot. It shows the threat of these ‘farms’ to the Mexican workers health and to local residents lives through the contamination and poisoning of the air and water.
Like Pig Business, what is really overwhelming are the huge negative effects on the local people, a consequence of producing the cheapest meat possible for U.S. consumers. Even worse is the corruption and physical brutality involved in setting up these factory farms and keeping them running, to the benefit of large companies such as Smithfield and complete absence of benefit to locals even in terms of jobs.
After looking at how industrial pig feed is also implicated in the formation and spread of disease, the documentary finally looks at Mexico City which with 22 million people is ideal for the creation of deadly viruses and only a few hours away from major cities around the world.
With this mind factory farming could well become a lot more than just a huge problem for the communities which surround them, it will as the film suggests become ‘everyone’s problem’.
See the documentary online here.
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