"The Swine Flu Crisis Lays Bare the Meat Industry's Monstruous Power"

This article was written in April of 2009 by Mike Davis, a history professor at the University of California-Irvine and author of the book "The Monster at Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu." In the article, he argues that the H1N1 "swine flu" virus has become and will continue to become a massive global problem because it has not been handled correctly. While less "lethal" than the SARS outbreak of 2003, Davis argues that H1N1 has become more "durable." He believes that the World Health Organization and the Center for Diease Control's lack of "preparedness" and prevention has allowed the H1N1 virus to infect people on the scale that it has. Davis complains that despite a "decade of urgent warnings by scientists" these largre organizations have failed to bring viral assay technology to countries that present likely origins for pandemics. He also blaims the industrial farming system, citing the statistic that, since 1965, the United States has gone from having fifty-three million hogs on more than a million farming facilities to now sixty-five million hogs packed into just sixty-five thoughsand facilities. The close quarters lead to easier spead of disease. Davis roots his argument in "the paradox of the Swine Flu panic," explaining that "while totally unexpected, it was accurately predicted."

Discussion Questions
1) What should have been done differently to prevent the swine flu outbreak? Could it have been prevented?
2) In what ways does the industial farming system contribute to the spread of diseases to humans?