I find a few holes in this, first of all the swine flu originated in mexico and they are trying to blame the American meat industry. That makes no sense because it didn't come from us thats like going to Mexico and getting food poison from a taco and coming to the U.S. and saying u will never eat a taco here again.
The second point I find to be a whole in the logic of the meat industry starting the swine flu is that they blame it on antibiotics. Last time I knew antibiotics fought bacteria, swine flu is a virus which means antibiotics have little to do with the argument. Also as far as I knew, I believe the use of antibiotics without reason just for precaution was baned by the FDA.
Another thing I found interesting is that you cant catch the flu from a pig. It has to mutate first which usually occurs only when you are around the animal for along period of time this however is not a common practice in the united states because industrial farming usually doesn't allow that kind of contact because of scale.
These are only a few of the holes that I found when reading about the argument.
Do you think the meat industry is the cause?
If so is this the price we pay for mass meat?
Are antibiotics effective and what is the danger?
I like how you're being a critical reader of the information--it's always important to consider not just the arguments that an author presents, but more importantly the evidence, and you're pointing to both in your response. Looking for holes is critical when you're reading someone's work. To clarify on the points you raise, though, the reason the author is blaming American pork producers is that they have operations in Mexico. Also, you raise an important point about the confusion some people have regarding antibiotic use and resistance to viruses. This author was actually just drawing the parallel between how increased antibiotic use is creating resistance in bacteria and how increase vaccinations in sows is creating mutations in flu viruses (unless I'm overlooking a specific excerpt you're referring to?). I see what you're saying, though, about it easily being confused in readers' minds (which was actually evident in other bloggers' posts!). Nice job clarifying that.
ReplyDeleteI am just saying that he takes advantage of people that do not understand that fact and also how he say antibiotics mostly are caused by the food industry when hospitals are equally at fault for there overuse.
ReplyDeleteI just saw that you replied a while ago to my comment, so I just wanted to respond that a common estimate is that 70-80 percent of all antibiotic use is found in agriculture. A recent study by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that only about 16% of antibiotics are used to treat people. I just thought you might find that interesting, or might have other data that refutes that? While overuse of antibiotics is a problem in the human population, I haven't seen information anywhere that suggests it's equal to that in agriculture.
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